He waited long enough to realize they weren’t going to call him. Which they didn’t.
This isn’t difficult, SR.
But that’s not the point. The point is that the Republicans didn’t ask in good faith – if they were asking in good faith, they would have accepted Hunter’s offer to testify publicly. The Republicans are behaving dishonestly here. Maybe Hunter still should have met the subpoena – the courts will decide that. But Hunter is correct that the Republicans in Congress are behaving dishonestly and only want his testimony for political attack fodder.
Hunter Biden: I will testify for you, under oath, in open session, on any hour of any day of any week of any month of any year.
James Comer: [Checks calendar] Uh. I’m busy that day.
And would have immediately called on Hunter to answer questions, as indicated by Comer back in September. (post #759)
If you think it’s unreasonable to want to be questioned where the public can see everything rather than in secret where political hacks can later spin whatever they want about what happened, I’d hate see what you think is “reasonable”.
He called their bluff. They have no intention of holding a legitimate investigation and he knows it.
I don’t see that in the articles. That seems to be an interpretation.
If you were asked to appear, the hearing is on-going, the session hasn’t ended, and you haven’t been dismissed then you’re still on the hook to answer questions.
If he was dismissed without being called then I’ll give the guy some benefit for abiding by the rules. But, otherwise, the only evidence that you’re willing to sit for questioning is that you actually sit for questioning. Popping out from behind a building, flashing your ass at your accuser while yelling “Go ahead and ask me questions, bitches!”, and then disappearing again isn’t really the same thing as true compliance.
In general, my read would be that he thought that he could rely on daddy to save him, so he didn’t respond to his subpoena. Likewise, today, he decided that he could thumb his nose and his accusers and, again, have his daddy save him.
If you appreciate that his target deserves to have someone thumb their nose and them, then that’s all well and good. I don’t fault anyone for thinking so. But it still remains that he didn’t demonstrate a willingness to be questioned by Congress. Only answering questions demonstrates that.
You come, sit, and say “My lawyer advises that I do not have to answer that question.” a lot and point out the stupidity of stupid questions as they become apparent.
He’s demonstrated a willingness to be publicly questioned by Congress, over and over again. But the Republicans aren’t interested in publicly questioning Hunter.
And then the Republicans claim he implicated his father and nobody can claim otherwise.
Reason says to not fall for that.
And I’m sure that Louis XIV would have only responded to subpoenas if Congress sat in the nude.
Unreasonable demands don’t evidence courage.
Testifying publicly is a reasonable demand.
Testifying publicly is unreasonable??
They already do and will do so regardless. And the Democrats will say the contrary. There’s no gaming compulsive liars into truthfulness. They’re going to say what they’re going to say.
Being, yourself, a good person is the only way to demonstrate that you’re a good person. Using the evils of others to defend your own bad behavior isn’t a good.
Would it be reasonable to tell the IRS that I don’t need to pay taxes this year, because it would make me sad?
You can’t game them into truthfulness but you can publicly expose them which is exactly what he did.
It would be reasonable to tell them you don’t want to pay them in gift cards that you have to buy from the IRS investigator’s cousin.
That’s a much closer analogy to what’s really happening here.
Another analogy. Cool.
Not really. Lots of people have testified in closed hearings and the end result was that the Republicans claimed X was said and the Democrats claimed Y was said, and later the transcripts came out and we knew that W had been said.
None of that is surprising.
When the Dem asked for a vote to question Biden (Moscovitz?), not a single Republican raised their hand. The Dem knew that would be the answer, and Hunter knew they wouldn’t question him publicly despite his availability.
Anyway, Hunter didn’t dash out the door before the Republicans could catch their breath and ask him to testify. Though I’d bet he was perfectly willing to be questioned publicly, Hunter’s presence was political theater. Brilliant, effective political theater.
To be clear, what made it so was the stammering Republicans who sat there with their thumbs up their asses, not sure what to do with a willing, available witness.
One last point, do check out Swalwell’s beat down of the GOP’s pious commitment to the sanctity of Congressional subpoenas. To clutch their pearls over a willing witness who will not play their games—it is to laugh.
No, and it would also not be analogous to what happened today.