The House Republicans’ flailing impeachment inquiry targeting President Joe Biden still hasn’t turned up any incriminating evidence, but for the GOP, hope springs eternal. This week, the Republican-led House Oversight Committee issued subpoenas for the president’s son Hunter, brother James, and a family associate named Rob Walker.
Time will tell what, if anything, GOP members will learn from their latest expedition, but what if those who received the subpoenas decide not to comply with the investigation?
As a Washington Post analysis noted, this came during an interesting on-air interview this week.
On Thursday morning, Rep. Greg Murphy (R-N.C.) ... appeared on CNN to discuss subpoenas issued by Comer’s Oversight Committee. ... Murphy was asked by host John Berman whether he would vote to hold the Bidens in contempt should they not comply with the subpoena. “Absolutely,” Murphy replied.
The trouble, of course, was that the North Carolina Republican had a different set of standards in the recent past: When Steve Bannon blew off a subpoena from the bipartisan Jan. 6 committee, Murphy did not vote to hold him in contempt for failing to comply.
When the CNN host reminded the congressman about this, Murphy responded, “It’s a little bit different of standards, John, when you have somebody who’s in elected office, versus somebody who’s not in elected office.”
He apparently hadn’t thought this through. When the Jan. 6 committee subpoenaed Bannon, he was a private citizen who used to hold an influential position in the White House. The Oversight Committee has now subpoenaed Hunter Biden, who is also a private citizen, and who has never held any public office at any level.
If Murphy wants to argue that those in elected office should be held to a higher standard, there’s certainly room for such a conversation, but it doesn’t apply here: Hunter Biden is not, and has never been, an elected official.
What’s more, we could take a related step down the same path and note that House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan also ignored a congressional subpoena from the Jan. 6 committee — and by Murphy’s standards, the Ohio Republican should “absolutely” face a contempt vote.
The Post’s analysis added, “Both Berman and Murphy know the real answer, of course: Bannon is on the Republican ‘team’ and Hunter Biden is on the Democratic side, and that’s the difference.”
It would’ve been easier if the GOP lawmaker just acknowledged what was plainly true.