Now you see him, now you don’t.
Hunter Biden made a surprise — and brief — appearance Wednesday at a House Oversight Committee hearing where members were debating a resolution holding him in contempt of Congress.
The first son, 53, showed up with his lawyer Abbe Lowell and “sugar brother” Kevin Morris and sat in the front row of the hearing room, causing an uproar among the panel’s Republicans, before leaving after about 10 minutes.
Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) tore into Hunter Biden during her remarks, calling him “epitome of white privilege.”
“My first question is: Who bribed Hunter Biden to be here today?” Mace began.
“You are the epitome of white privilege — coming into the Oversight Committee, spitting in our face, ignoring a congressional subpoena to be deposed. What are you afraid of? You have no balls.”
Mace added: “I think Hunter Biden should be arrested right here, right now, and go straight to jail.”
Hunter stood up and left the room before Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) spoke — tearing into the first son as a “coward” — and was trailed by reporters and political operatives in the hallways of the Rayburn House Office Building.
The president’s son did take at least one question about his dad’s role in his foreign dealings when asked why he put Joe Biden on speakerphone during approximately 20 business meetings Hunter held during his dad’s vice presidency.
“If he called you would you answer the phone?” replied the first son — despite the fact that his former “best friend in business” Devon Archer testified in July that Hunter often initiated those calls to impress foreign associates.
Completing the farce, a heckling anti-Biden operative could be heard asking repeatedly: “Hunter, what’s your favorite kind of crack? Are you on crack today?”
Democrats on the Oversight panel took turns Wednesday insisting that Hunter was willing to testify, but only in a public hearing rather than a deposition controlled the panel’s staff.
“Let me tell you why nobody wants to talk to y’all behind closed doors,” said Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas). “‘Cuz you all lie. That’s just the bottom line.”
Democrats on the Oversight panel took turns Wednesday insisting that Hunter was willing to testify, but only in a public hearing rather than a deposition controlled the panel’s staff.
Hunter Biden skipped the scheduled Dec. 13 deposition by claiming he would prefer to testify before the world — thereby presenting opportunities for the oversight panel’s many eccentric members to filibuster on his behalf or otherwise go off-message.
Republicans have previously noted that former President Donald Trump’s adult children had complied with subpoenas issued by House Democrats as part of various investigations into the 45th president.
In lieu of his interview, Hunter gave a speech outside the Capitol in which he insisted his father was not “financially” involved with his foreign dealings in countries such as China and Ukraine — despite mounting evidence that Joe Biden as vice president routinely interacted with associates who paid his son millions of dollars.
Hunter’s gambit propelled the House of Representatives to vote hours later to formally authorize the impeachment inquiry it launched on Sept. 12.
Contempt of Congress is a crime punishable by a minimum of 30 days behind bars per offense, though the Biden Justice Department would have to choose to prosecute the son of the nation’s chief law enforcement officer.
Two former Trump advisers — Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro — were convicted by the Biden Justice Department of crimes for refusing to testify to the House select committee that investigated the 2021 Capitol riot.
“You’re playing with the truth,” Mace said Wednesday as she lectured the president’s son.