that these contempt proceedings are without merit. but republicans pushed back. it was a contentious start to the hearing. you had marjorie taylor greene, nancy mace pushing back on his appearance. they said this was a disruption. they asked what the rules were. they said this is just a political stunt from hunter biden. and nancy mace said he should be arrested here on the spot. hunter biden showed up. he was in the committee room for about, i would say, around 20 minutes. he was in the crowd. he did not speak going into the hearing room. he didn t answer questions from reporters. then afterwards, his lawyer just gave a prepared statement. hunter biden did not really engage with reporters afterwards. clearly he s trying to make a point here. he is trying to make the point that once again he is willing to speak to republicans as long as it is in a public setting. and that is really what this contentious fight over the contempt proceedings boils down to. it also comes amid the broader p
let s take a vote. who wants to hear from hunter right now today? anyone? come on. who wants to hear from hunter? no one. so i m a visual learner. and the visual is clear. nobody over there wants to hear from the witness oh, one, thank you. will you yield for a question? i m not there yet, but i will eventually. so there s no one other than one or two that want to hear from the witness. the majority of my colleagues over there including the chairman don t want to hear from the witness with the american people watching. so mr. chairman, i just want to hear from you will you acknowledge that you invited the witness on television to choose whether he could come to a public hearing, and do you stand by your words, or do you renege that invitation to the witness? to answer the , i ve said repeatedly after the deposition, mr. biden can come in front of a
chairman comer s multiple public requests. he agreed to appear precisel ly at a public hearing under oaths to answer the committee s questions on december 13th. exactly what our good colleagues, the republicans who had information about january 6th never agreed to do, they never agreed to testify anywhere under oath about what they knew. the letter that came in from mr. biden embraced the importance of having a public proceeding that, quote, would prevent selective leaks, manipulated transcripts, doctored exhibits, or one-sided press statements, especially in lights of the committee s past use of closed door sessions to manipulate, even distort the facts mr. chairman? mr. chairman? i have an inquiry. mr. chairman? don t we have house rules and committee rules regarding
a theatrical explosion. you just saw hunter biden and his lawyer leaving that building right there. quite a moment. melanie on capitol hill, you saw much of it. explain what we just saw. reporter: yeah. yeah. well, hunter biden made a surprise appearance today in front of the house oversight committee which was about to recommend that he be referred to the department of justice for defying a subpoena and be held in contempt of congress. now a little bit of the back story. republicans requested that hunter biden sit down wfor a closed door deposition. him and his lawyer have said they would show up for a public hearing and he doesn t want his testimony selectively leaked by republicans. today him and his legal team made the point that he s here again today, he is willing to talk to republicans. democrats made the point that he is not scared of the committee, that he s willing to talk to them. and basically trying to show
made policy decisions because of his son s foreign business deals. they have made it a centerpiece of their impeachment inquiry into the president. they have struggled to provide evidence. so now they are moving ahead with contempt proceedings which is going to be a showdown. this is probably going to pass out of the house oversight committee and out of the house judiciary committee, then it will go to the full floor. then it autopsy up then it s up to the dodge to determine whether to prosecute. it was a circus, another day on capitol hill, guys. we re use today to drama on capitol hill. that was unscripted drama right there and the bad reality show genre. i don t remember that happening. we re going to we re going to hold not even a contempt hearing. but we re going to hold a hearing specifically about one person who they say hasn t shown up, and then they show up i don t remember this anything like this happening. clearly they were surprised. it was a schoolyard braw