‘Rules for Me But Not for Thee’: Fox’s John Roberts and Democrat Jared Moskowitz Spar Over Hunter Biden Subpoena, Hypocrisy
Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) joined Fox News anchor John Roberts for a conversation about whether Republicans or Democrats were guilty of hypocrisy in the controversy over Hunter Biden’s defiance of a congressional subpoena to submit to a deposition on America Reports Wednesday afternoon.
“So Hunter Biden showed up at this hearing, but he continues to defy a duly issued subpoena from the Oversight Committee to show up for a deposition. Um, what he did today is being seen by many people as a political stunt grandstanding. How did you view it?” asked Roberts about Biden’s appearance at a hearing on holding him in contempt of Congress earlier on Wednesday to begin the interview.
Moskowitz responded by pointing out that House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) had publicly declared that Biden could testify in whatever form — be it behind closed doors or in a public hearing — before demanding that Biden comply with a subpoena for the former.
“The chairman obviously has decided that he’s reneging the invitation, and now it only can be in the basement of a building in which we’ll never see, never see the transcript,” declared Moskowitz. “My other point in the hearing was, look, if we want to hold Hunter Biden in contempt, what I said to my colleagues across the aisle was: I’ll vote with them, I’ll make it bipartisan, but we got to apply the rules equally. We’ve heard that Hunter Biden doesn’t deserve special rules, I agree with that. But we have several of my colleagues that defied subpoenas in the last Congress, just never showed up, never tried to negotiate, just totally blew them off. And so if we’re going to try to do this to Hunter, then obviously those congressmen also need to be held in contempt. I want to apply the rule equally. I think that’ll restore faith to the American people that this place just isn’t it isn’t a show.”
“So two points there,” shot back Roberts. “First of all, you said a transcript that will never see the light of day. These transcripts will be released to the public. I mean, that’s part of the deal, it was the same thing with the January 6 committee. And in terms of whether or not Comer ever said, ‘Look, you can do it behind closed doors, you can do it in public,’ the subpoena was specifically for a behind closed doors deposition, which Hunter Biden continues to refuse to do. So legal experts are saying it’s not what Comer may or may not have said in public, it’s what the subpoena says. Would you agree with that?”
Moskowitz said he would leave Hunter Biden and his attorneys to answer that question, but argued that “the hypocrisy” was “what the American people are looking at.”
“They look at Washington and they just see that it’s different rules when Democrats are in charge or when Republicans are in charge,” he argued before insisting that he’s “still willing to vote to hold Hunter in contempt” if Congress also holds the Republicans who didn’t comply with January 6 Committee subpoenas in contempt.
Roberts then played clips of two Democratic representatives explaining why interviews with January 6 Committee witnesses were conducted behind closed doors.
“So a lot of critics are saying, congressman, rules for me but not for thee. What do you say?” inquired Roberts.
Moskowitz replied:
I think the difference there is, is that those those instances they never got offered to come testify publicly and never accepted the public invitation. They were fighting the subpoena from day one, they never, they never offered to do it in a public hearing. I mean, look, even Ted Cruz came out the other day and said, “Just have Hunter in a public hearing.” He said it right on his podcast. Invite him in and just have the public hearing, let the American people hear from Hunter, and do the deposition, do the depositions there.
And going back to your previous point, John, you’re right that the transcript will eventually come out, but it’ll come out six months from now. And so what will happen is they’ll do this deposition, they’ll selectively release things, there’ll be no way to fact check the stuff that they’re talking about until six months from now.
And so, look, all I’m saying to my colleagues is you can’t complain when you break something, and then you break a toy, and then now you get the toy, and the toy is broken, and you want to know why it’s not working. They had members defy subpoenas, and now they’re concerned why people obviously want to continue to fight subpoenas up here. It’s because they broke it in the last Congress, unfortunately.
Watch above via Fox News.
