‘You’re the Dog That Caught the Bus’: Tapper Grills Comer About Rejecting Hunter Biden’s Offer To Testify in Public
CNN’s Jake Tapper pressed Rep. James Comer (R-KY) for rejecting Hunter Biden’s offer to publicly testify in front of the House Oversight Committee.
As chair of the committee, Comer has been investigating Hunter Biden, who was indicted on nine federal tax counts on Thursday, and his father President Joe Biden for nearly a year. The lawmaker insists that the elder Biden benefitted from his son’s foreign business dealings. Recently, Comer has pointed to checks made out to Biden from his son and his brother that the Kentuckian claims emanated from ill-gotten gains reaped from Chinese companies. The Bidens say the checks were loan repayments.
Last month, Hunter Biden offered to testify in public, but Comer rejected it, stating that his committee has hundreds of questions that are best answered behind closed doors before any public hearing is held.
Comer appeared on Friday’s episode of The Lead, where Tapper all but begged him to agree to take Biden’s offer.
“You’ve called Biden to testify next week before your committee,” the host noted. “You said if he does not appear, you will hold him in contempt of Congress. Hunter Biden has said, and his lawyers, that he’s willing to testify publicly. He just doesn’t want to do it behind closed doors. He’s afraid Republicans will leak his remarks and they’ll put them out of context. Why not just allow his appearance to be public? I have to say just as a journalist, I really just, as you generally know, I like the transparency. Ask him anything you want, I would like to see it.”
Comer responded by claiming his committee into the Bidens is more transparent than a previous probe of the Trumps when Democrats controlled Congress.
“Remember, during the January 6th committee, the children of the former president testified for over 12 hours behind closed doors in a deposition,” he said. “Every big criminal case in America has closed-door depositions.”
“I guess my other question is, isn’t something better than nothing?” Tapper asked. “Why not just jump at the opportunity to grill Hunter Biden on national television? Here’s your chance, you know? You’re the dog that caught the bus. Here it is!”
“This isn’t about politics,” Comer answered, prompting a chuckle from the host. “It’s not about theater.”
He went on to say, “My job is not to entertain you all. My job is to get the proof. When you have a public hearing, a regular committee hearing, you know how they are. Each side gets five minutes. We have 25 Republicans. We would probably get 35, maybe 40 questions in. We have about 7 or 800 specific questions.”
Watch above via CNN.
