The House Oversight Committee‘s second hearing in the impeachment inquiry had several fiery moments throughout the hours of testimony from witnesses regarding President Joe Biden’s family’s business dealings.
With the fireworks of the Wednesday hearing — which started during the first witness’s opening statement — several members of Congress and some of the witnesses were part of fiery moments. Here are five feisty moments from the hearing on Capitol Hill.
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) called out by Tony Bobulinski
During his opening statement, Tony Bobulinski called out Reps. Jamie Raskin (D-NY) and Dan Goldman (D-NY) among the people he alleged had lied about his allegations about the Biden family’s business dealings.
“We keep hearing from certain corners that our democracy is at risk and democracy is on the ballot. Yet the same people preaching this mantra know better. They continue to lie directly to the American people without hesitation and remorse,” Bobulinski said.
“Reps. Dan Goldman and Jamie Raskin, both lawyers, and Mr. Goldman, a former prosecutor with the SDNY from New York, will continue to lie today in this hearing and then go straight to the media to tell more lies,” he added.
Raskin later interrupted Bobulinski’s opening statement to request a parliamentary inquiry from House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) on whether witnesses were subject to decorum rules after Bobulinski accused him and Goldman of being liars.
“He called members of this committee liars, and I just want to know whether the order and decorum requirements of House rule 11 apply to witnesses appearing before the committee,” Raskin said. “Does it apply, or does it not?”
After speaking with an aide, Comer said he was unaware of any rules about decorum “pertaining to a witness” and he allowed Bobulinski to continue.
Goldman’s parliamentary inquiry is shut down
Following Bobulinski’s opening statement, Raskin asked why Jason Galanis, another former associate of Hunter Biden, was granted to testify remotely when members had been barred from remotely attending hearings.
After Raskin’s question, Goldman claimed to ask a parliamentary inquiry, but Comer cut him off and moved on to the next witness after it appeared Goldman’s question was not a parliamentary matter.
“Mr. Bobulinski just referred to text messages. I believe he is referring to photos of a BlackBerry,” Goldman began to ask before getting interrupted by Comer.
“What is your parliamentary inquiry? State your parliamentary inquiry because we have a very important hearing here and we do not have time for stunts. What is your parliamentary inquiry?” Comer asked.
Goldman said it was “not a stunt,” but Comer became frustrated over the unclear parliamentary inquiry and moved on to the next witness’s testimony.
“You asked for a parliamentary inquiry. You will have five minutes whenever Jamie Raskin tells me it is your time to speak,” Comer said.
Bobulinski is “a thousand percent sure” Joe Biden is the big guy
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) went into a spirited rant about Joe Biden’s alleged involvement in Hunter Biden’s business dealings, referencing how the younger Biden denied knowing who “the big guy” was in messages obtained by the committee.
Jordan asked Bobulinski who he believed the “big guy” was, to which he responded: “Joe Biden.” When the Ohio Republican asked if he was sure, he said he was “a thousand percent sure.”
Bobulinski also claimed that there were additional messages that backed up the claim that Joe Biden is “the big guy,” as referenced in a message about where funds from business deals would go.
Bobulinski calls out Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA)
Bobulinski called out another Democratic congressman on the committee while he was being questioned by Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) in the hearing. Khanna had questioned the witness brought by the Democrats, Lev Parnas, an associate of Rudy Giuliani, but did not acknowledge Bobulinski.
Before answering Donalds’s question, Bobulinski decried Khanna for not asking any questions to him even after they had spoken about his allegations before.
“If you noticed, the congressman Khanna scurried out very quickly. I am disgusted as I sit here that he didn’t address me based on the fact I’m sitting here in front of the world trying to testify to the truth.”
“In October 2020, I had messages, I am willing to produce them to both Democrats and Republicans, that Ro Khanna sent to me, saying, ‘you have always demonstrated to me that you are nothing but an honest — with the highest integrity — individual.’ And I was begging for him to go on CNN and tell the world in October 2020,” he added.
AOC asks Bobulinski to name Biden’s alleged crimes
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) got into a tense exchange with Bobulinski when asking him to list the crimes he witnessed Joe Biden commit.
When asked directly by Ocasio-Cortez if Bobulinski saw Biden commit a crime, he said he did, and then she asked which crimes he had witnessed.
“Corruption statutes, RICO and conspiracy, FARA,” Bobulinski answered before Ocasio-Cortez interrupted.
“What is the crime, sir, specifically?” Ocasio-Cortez asked.
“You asked me to answer the question, I answered the question. So you’re obviously not familiar with corruption statutes, FARA,” Bobulinski said before he was interrupted again.
Ocasio-Cortez then insisted that RICO is not a crime. RICO is an acronym for the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.
0 Comments