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Chairman Comer Ends House Oversight Committee Hearing With a Special Announcement

Rebecca Downs
Rebecca Downs  |  March 21, 2024 8:45 AM

On Wednesday, the House Oversight Committee held a hearing on "Influence Peddling: Examining Joe Biden’s Abuse of Public Office." Although he had been invited to attend, and had even asked for a public hearing, Hunter Biden was a no-show. His lack of presence was noted throughout the hearing, including by key witness Tony Bobulinski, his former business partner. While Chairman James Comer (R-KY) decided to invite yet another Biden family member to come before the Committee at a future date, this time President Joe Biden himself.

To end the hearing, Comer summarized how Bobulinski and Jason Galanis, also a former business partner, had provided testimony "directly implicating President Biden and his family's influence peddling schemes."

Comer addressed how Joe Biden is the person left who can square away the discrepancies in Hunter's testimony versus Bobulinski's testimony and Galanis' testimony, as he reminded the witnesses have not changed their testimonies. 

Just as he had raised in his opening statement, Comer brought up how Biden is either "complicit or incompetent," noting "the American people deserve to know which one it was but neither is acceptable for the leader of the United States." 

Ranking Member Jamie Raskin (D-MD) also asked if former and potentially future President Donald Trump would be invited to "come to talk about his violations of the Emoluments Clause," as he and the chairman got into a brief back-and-forth about the investigations into Trump and the current president. 

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Not to be outdone, Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) also later posted he would be inviting Trump to come as well, in a repost from Comer. The congressman posted he wished for Trump to come to "explain why his family received tens of millions of dollars from foreign countries with his assistance."

Moskowitz, as Sarah covered on Wednesday, had also come to the hearing in a Vladimir Putin mask, accusing Republicans of relying on Russian misinformation. "I just came to thank James Comer for taking all of our intelligence and using it in the committee," he said in his Putin mask. 

Democrats during and before Wednesday's hearing have been complaining about Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, but as we've covered, and as was read into the record during Wednesday's hearing, the contrast is stark between Kushner and Hunter Biden. 

It wasn't long before the White House responded, in a sense. Ian Sams, the White House counsel, reposted CNN reporter Annie Grayer about Comer's announcement, in part with "LOL" and an emoji. He also claimed "witnesses have testified that POTUS did nothing wrong" and that "records he’s received have refuted his false allegations."