now as hunter biden was supposed to be sitting right now behind closed doors for a deposition on the hill. but this morning again he said he will speak only to lawmakers if he can do so publicly. welcome to "the faulkner focus", everybody. good morning, i'm martha maccallum in for harris. republicans said they wanted to talk to hunter biden closed doors. they would hold him in contempt if he didn't show up. he did show up on his own terms. he stood before the cameras on the senate side of the building, lots of attention this morning, and then he got back in a car and left capitol hill. watch this. >> in the depths of my addiction i was extremely irresponsible with my finances. but to suggest that is grounds for an impeachment inquiry is beyond the absurd. it is shameless. there is no evidence to support the allegations that my father was financially involved in my business because it did not happen. >> martha: there is a lot there and we'll dig it into today. the house will vote later today, separate but connected in some ways, which we'll get into this morning here, on formalizing an impeachment inquiry and that is into president biden. only a simple majority is needed to move forward with an inquiry into impeachment on the house side. now the inquiry would give the house more power to require the biden administration to comply with requests that they have made for information and for testimony. also grants more subpoena power to the three committees that would be probing this impeachment. the white house dismissed all of this as pure political theater. republicans say they are simply following the evidence where it has gone. watch this. >> mr. biden's counsel and the white house have both argued that the reason he couldn't come for a deposition was because there wasn't a formal vote for an impeachment inquiry. that will happen in a few hours. we think it is going to pass. we think the house of representatives will go on record with the power that solely resides in the house to say we're in an official impeachment inquiry phase of our oversight. when that happens we'll see what their excuse is then. >> martha: republican congressman chip roy who sits on the judiciary committee will join us. first chad pergram with a look at all of the fascinating comings and goings outside the building on capitol hill and what happens next inside. >> hunter biden ducked the deposition arguing he wanted an open hearing. democrats backed him up. >> they wanted to conduct the deposition in a closed-door interview so the public couldn't see it and so they could continue to cherry pick little pieces of evidence and distort and misrepresent what had taken place. >> hunter biden spoke to reporters on the senate side of capitol hill because he was out of compliance with the house subpoena. that means the house agent at arms could not compel him to appear. the house has no authority on the senate side. >> let me state as clearly as i can, my father was not financially involved in my business, not as a practicing lawyer, not as a board member of burisma, not in my partnership with a chinese private businessman, not in my investments as home or abroad and certainly not as an artist. >> the house votes today to authorize an impeachment inquiry. republicans struggled for months to get the votes to initiate an impeachment inquiry. it appears they finally have them because moderates from swing districts are now on board. vulnerable gop members are now prepared to vote yes. >> i have defended a lot of tough votes over my career on both sides of the aisle and taken heat from both sides. it is what it is. on this one it's an inquiry to start the process and ask some serious questions. >> jim jordan says the house will try to hold hunter biden in contempt of congress if he does not comply with a subpoena. but the biden justice department would be asked to prosecute that case. martha. >> martha: i will hold you for a quick question about something you spoke about moments ago with bill and dana. you referenced it in your report that you thought that he was going to be arriving on the house side. that is where he had been subpoenaed to give closed door testimony. then you found out he was over on the senate side. what could the house sergeant-at-arms have done, what would be within his power if he had been sort of within arm's reach of hunter biden this morning? >> conceivably james comer, there was a question posed to him at the gaggle in the hallway, the chairman. could go to the sergeant at arm and sap he is on our territory and out of compliance. get him in to comply with the subpoena. we don't see that much now. in the 18th century we saw more of that. by showing up on the senate side of the capitol house sergeant-at-arms has no jurisdiction but what it showed is that hunter biden was on capitol hill. saying i'm here just not coming into that room to take part in that closed-door deposition and that's why he got in the van and left. >> martha: chad, thank you very much. reporting on the ongoings on capitol hill this morning. congressman chip roy is a member of the rules and judiciary committees and policy chair for the house freedom caucus. congressman roy, thank you very much. good to have you here this morning. what did you make of hunter biden's rather lengthy statement about his addiction, his finances, and what he is calling a maga attempt to ridicule him and his family. >> great to be on, martha. first of all, something like 65 to 68% of the american people want to know exactly what we want to know, the truth. they recognize there is criminal -- legal concerns here as well as ethical concerns. so what we want to know is what did president biden know and what was his involvement in the very clear enrichment of his family? hunter biden at the center and his entire family through multiple shell corporations over the last six, seven, eight years going back to when he was vice president. what did he know? has he lied about it and have they engaged in obstruction of justice? what you saw today from hunter biden was more obstruction. what we've seen out of the department of justice where they limited the ability of witnesses to testify telling them they can't speak about certain things. they can't speak about daddy's involvement or speak about whether or not the tax returns were slow walked to let the statute of limitations run. they can't speak about the truth about the extent to which d.o.j. has stonewalled all the witnesses from being able to testify. that's the truth and now hunter biden comes up, thumbs his nose at the process, goes over and gives a press conference without coming and honoring the request of the house of representatives to do a deposition and appear before the committee. it will continue. we'll have a vote today on the impeachment inquiry, we need to second evidence about the corruption of this president which is very clear, millions of dollars enriching hunter biden peddling the family name. we have know that's what happened. daddy's brand, the biden brand, peddling it in order to enrich his family. it is wrong and corrupt. >> martha: that's the testimony we heard from devon archer, one of the inner cirquely involved in all this business. the brand was the biden name. and you watch hunter biden up there. seems to me as if he got what he wanted. he wanted a public testimony moment. no doubt this would have been his opening statement if these had been open hearings. what we didn't get was to watch republicans and democrats question him in this environment. do you think it was a mistake to not allow them re him the public hearing he asked for and will you ever get him behind closed doors to testify now? >> well the procedures we put in place we put in place for a reason for our witnesses have to go through and have a deposition. then you can have hearings when you get to the next step. it is important to note on steps of the capitol he said an important word. he said his dad didn't have any involvement financially, right? he didn't say it was a blanket that he wasn't involved. that's really important. hunter biden is basically an ongoing domino fall of stupid decisions and statements. we're seeing that right here going to the capitol and saying his dad wasn't involved in financial dealings. we'll see if that is true. that's a big tell to me. we all know that his dad was involved in enriching hunter and foreign entities were sending millions of dollars to them. we know from whistleblower testimony they were slow walking the i.r.s. from being able to go after the investigation in 2014 and 2015. we know these things to be true so we will have an inquiry today. we'll seek the truth. we've been having to do all the work the department of justice refuses to do and we can hold him in contempt in the house of representatives and see where the process goes. the sweetheart deal he got from a judge and that judge -- that he got from d.o.j. and the judge slapped down the deal, now we're seeing the truth. now you have an indictment where they dance around refusing to actually go after joe biden in those years because they are trying to put this all onto hunter. the truth will come out to the american people this is a broad corruption involving the entire biden family. >> martha: it is significant as you mentioned, congressman, that he said my dad was not involved in the financial part of any of my businesses, because if people just roll back their memory bank they remember president biden on the debate stage saying my son isn't involved in any foreign businesses and i have nothing to do with any of his businesses. then it became i'm not in business with my son, right? now it's my dad was not financially involved in business. we've seen all of these direct interactions and the phone calls and the shakedown attempt. my dad is sitting right next to me right now. you better send us the money to the chinese company. i want to show you one headline here from the "washington post" editorial board. they say the hunter biden indictment is sound. the joe biden impeachment inquiry is not. there is a lot of effort to say that your side of this investigation has not proven any link between the president and this hunter biden indictment, which is a tax evasion charge primarily at this point and a gun charge. what would you say to the "washington post" editorialists? >> i think the "washington post" doth protest too much with respect to what our case is. we have had no support out of the department of justice. we have had to do all the work through the oversight and judiciary committee. i would also point to the obstruction i have laid out with respect to the d.o.j. the obstruction that we have haven't been able to get witnesses to come forward because of direct pushdown from d.o.j. and merrick garland and the white house. but also note the 82,000 emails, right? involving a pseudonym that we believe the president was using when he was vice president that businesses. that indicates some problems. we have only gotten 14 of those. we are getting stonewalled and obstruction, which is something we have to pursue. to them i would say look, the only reason this indictment is sound is because a judge stood in front of the department of justice which tried to cut a sweetheart deal. they are ignoring it on purpose. i want to say a shout-out to mike johnson, our speaker, for proceeding with this and moving it to the floor. i hope we pass it today. every republican should support this on the floor of the house. mike johnson should be commended to doing that. we disagree on some things but this is an important things and standing up yesterday and ukraine and saying we need to secure our border first was also really important. >> martha: where the impeachment inquiry might lead an the implications of it. thank you very much. let me bring in matt whitaker former acting attorney general. matt, good morning. we haven't seen you weigh in on this this morning. dramatic morning on the sidewalk in front of the senate side which is fascinating. i don't know if he thought they would grab him on the house side and make him testify. your thoughts on that and what you saw so far unfolding today. he is gone now, no closed door testimony. >> right. this is political theater at its best. perfectly scripted from the hunter biden team to make their points, to score as many points as they possibly can and then to ultimately walk away and so the american people will sort of see him speaking at the capitol but without the liability or risk that it would otherwise involve, market martha. we'll see if there is a two-tier department of justice. we had people like peter navarro and steve bannon that were indicted by d.o.j. for ignoring a congressional subpoena and now that hunter biden has done it, we'll see whether merrick garland is willing to do it. the one other thing i would like to make on this point is that hunter biden's team had a simple calculation. he is already facing six felony charges for guns and taxes, he has six misdemeanor charges on the tax case. one more misdemeanor they were willing to risk that legally because he is in real hot water with the other cases. >> martha: listening to this discussion prior to this hour that dana and bill were having about the department of justice and talking with andy mccarthy and whether or not they will actually pursue any of that. congress has very limited powers when it comes to this. i think the american people watch this and here we go again. nothing ever happens to these people. we watch it time and time again from hillary clinton to, you know, some might put president trump in there with impeachments and we watch how political they are once they move through the majorities in the house and senate. what would you say to folks at home who are throwing up their hands at this this morning? >> they have every right to be frustrated. i'm here in iowa today where i was born and raised and live. i would tell you that a lot of this that happens in washington, d.c. is oftentimes discarded as pure politics. when the department of justice puts their thumb on the scale of justice that is noticed. i think merrick garland is going to have to ultimately indict him, hunter biden, for ignoring this congressional subpoena. you remember when he appointed the special counsel as soon as the documents were found hidden in joe biden's garage behind the corvette, he felt obligated to appoint a special counsel. he will have the same obligation here after indicting two trump associates for the exact same ignoring a subpoena i think he will have to do it. if he doesn't, i will come back on here and say that is the most obvious example of the two-tier system of justice we've seen to date. >> martha: when you watch this process. later on you'll hear the impeachment inquiry vote. the house will decide if they have a simple majority which would allow them to move forward with this impeachment inquiry of the sitting president right now. tell us what your thoughts are there and what you expect to see this afternoon, if that vote goes through. and then what happens politically? >> well, it ratchets up. mike johnson it seems to me would not bring that vote unless he is pretty confident and counted noses to see who will vote for impeachment inquiry and it gives them the most tools to do the investigation. and i think it puts more teeth in what they are doing. at the end of the day, you know, as i said when president trump was being investigated by the congress under nancy pelosi, impeachment is a political operation and so ultimately i would be more interested in sort of these legal and judicial action including whether or not merrick garland has the guts to enforce a congressional subpoena and future congressional subpoenas if others ignore the legitimate subpoenas. >> martha: thank you very much. a lot going on back to iowa with the beautiful state capitol behind you. see you soon. we'll head out to iowa in a few weeks, big things happening in iowa as the election gets underway and there is the image on the right-hand side of your screen. president biden, who is got to have this on his mind today. his son in front of capitol hill this morning professing that he is innocent. his dad didn't know anything about his business dealings. we've seen a lot of evidence to the contrary. the impeachment inquiry taking place on the house side today. we'll cover that live around 3:00 on "the story" and students and alumni at harvard are outraged their university continues to support president claudine gay. >> hypocrisy, harvard university has spent the last five years with cancel culture as the dominant norm on its campus d now that anti-semitism has flared up, it has decided to embrace free speech principles. >> martha: he is not alone. there is momentum on the hill to pressure both gay and m.i.t.'s president to step down through a resolution. we'll talk to pete hegseth, harvard graduate, coming up next. est congestion. hello 12 hours of relief. 12 hours!! not coughing? 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