Ahead of Hunter Biden’s testimony before the House Oversight Committee’s impeachment inquiry this week, Republicans didn’t make much of an effort to hype the closed-door Q&A, but after it wrapped up, they were eager to present it as a partisan success.
The three GOP lawmakers spearheading the impeachment crusade — Oversight Chair James Comer, Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan, and Ways and Means Chair Jason Smith — sat down with Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Wednesday night, and the host asked, “On a scale of one through 10, how damaging was today’s testimony — or deposition — to Hunter Biden?”
Smith, who did not attend the deposition, replied, “I’d say an eight.” Comer agreed.
At that point, however, it was difficult to say with confidence whether the Republicans’ boasts had merit, since the public had not yet seen a transcript of the Q&A.
The morning after the Hannity interview, shortly before the transcript started reaching inboxes, the party’s tone shifted. Republican Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona appeared on Fox and conceded that the official record would “read well” for Biden because lawyers representing the president’s son did “a great job” preparing the witness.
It was the first big hint of what was to come. NBC News reported on the release of the 229-page transcript:
The document … underscores the disconnect between what House Republicans have repeatedly alleged are criminal actions by Hunter Biden and his father and the documentation and testimony they have made public as part of their impeachment inquiry. “We wanted a quick and full release” of the transcript, a representative from Hunter Biden’s legal team told NBC News on Thursday. “This transcript shows why this [investigation] needs to end. They have nothing.”
A Washington Post analysis drew a similar conclusion, equating the deposition to a Bruce Lee movie.
Republican legislators and interviewers challenging the president’s son on the House majority’s behalf would throw out an allegation, often one that’s been worn smooth after tumbling around in the right-wing media universe for the past year or two. And Biden would invariably swat it away, stripping off the layers of innuendo that had been applied by Donald Trump and Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) or Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) or any of myriad Fox News commentators.
Remember, this closed-door deposition was the Republicans’ idea. They demanded this opportunity to get answers from President Joe Biden’s son, and subpoenaed him accordingly. GOP officials and their teams had all kinds of time to get their acts together, settling on the perfect lines of inquiry to uncover evidence of Joe Biden being involved in Hunter Biden’s private-sector work. And now that we’ve seen the transcript, we know that Republicans failed spectacularly to find any evidence whatsoever of Joe Biden being involved in Hunter Biden’s private-sector work — not because GOP investigators are incompetent, but because there apparently is no such evidence to find. Comer and Smith may have been eager to pat themselves on the back on Wednesday night, but the truth has come into focus: The deposition was the latest in a lengthy series of duds. Is it any wonder why some in the GOP have begun describing the impeachment crusade against the Democratic president with words and phrases such as “clueless,” “disaster,” and “parade of embarrassments”?
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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