A House Oversight Committee hearing on China erupted into chaos on Wednesday as Republican Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, chairman of the panel, and Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland traded insults and accused each other of needing “therapy.”
Tensions boiled over when Raskin attempted to undermine Republicans’ investigation into allegations of corruption involving President Joe Biden and son Hunter Biden’s business activities in China.
Comer asked the Democrat whether it was “OK, as Tony Bobulinski said, for China to bribe Joe Biden’s family with $9 million?”
Bobulinski — Hunter Biden’s former business partner — has said the president was involved in his son’s foreign business schemes and benefited from Hunter’s business in China.
Raskin fired back, “But that’s the lie that’s been discredited,” and challenged Comer to move for impeachment if he believed it.
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“If Joe Biden took a $9 million bribe from China, why aren’t you impeaching him for that?” he asked.
“Well, who says we’re not?” Comer responded.
The sparring continued as the Republican told Raskin, “This is a hearing on China, and you all have an obsession with Russia and [former President Donald] Trump.”
“It’s disturbing,” Comer added. “You need therapy. You all need therapy, Mr. Raskin.”
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“No, no, you need therapy,” the Democrat countered. “You’re the one who’s involved with the deranged politician, not me. I divorced myself from Donald Trump a long time ago. You’re the one who needs to disentangle from that situation.”
The sniping continued, with Raskin accusing Trump of accepting a $5 million payment from China, to which Comer explained that the former president had “a legitimate business.”
“The legitimate business was the White House. He sold the White House,” Raskin responded, causing Comer to snap, “Oh, give me a break.”
“What business were the Bidens in? … Did they have hotels? Did they have a social media company? Did they have golf courses? Did they have casinos? Did they have office buildings?” he asked.
Raskin then accused Comer of spending “tens of millions of dollars to you pursuing Joe Biden,” to which he replied: “That is not true, that is a lie.”
Comer continued pushing the Democrat about what the Bidens did to receive all that money, and Raskin finally said that Biden had been a U.S. senator and then wrote a book that made “millions of dollars.”
“That’s what his family did?” Comer responded. “That’s why Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Romania, China, Russia — that’s why they paid the Biden family money– because Joe Biden wrote a book?”
“Somebody needs therapy here,” Raskin responded, clearly at a loss for a comeback, “but it’s nobody on our side of the aisle, OK?”
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By then, the committee had dissolved into chaos with multiple people yelling out, and Comer had to bang the gavel to regain control.
According to a Nov. 1 memo from Comer, in July 2017, Hunter Biden demanded a $10 million payment from an associate at CEFC China Energy, a company with ties to the Chinese Communist Party.
On Aug. 8, 2017, CEFC wired $5 million to a joint venture between Hunter and one of his business partners. That company then paid $400,000 to an entity controlled by Hunter, the memo said.
Days later, it said, Hunter Biden wired $150,000 to a company owned by the president’s brother, James Biden, and sister-in-law, Sara Biden. Sara Biden allegedly then withdrew $50,000 cash from that account and deposited it into a personal checking account she shared with James.
Then, on Sept. 3, 2017, Sara Biden wrote a $40,000 check to Joe Biden with the memo line “loan repayment,” Comer’s memo said, citing the bank records.
“It’s certainly plausible that this payment … was indeed a loan repayment to Joe,” the congressman said in a video statement. “But even if this $40,000 check was a loan repayment from James Biden, it still shows how Joe benefited from his family cashing in on his name – with money from China, no less.”
“In taking funds sourced to a CCP-linked company that wanted to advance China’s interests, Joe Biden exposed himself to future blackmail and put America’s interests behind his own desire for money,” Comer said.
All the screaming, insults and talk of therapy aside, the Oversight Committee chairman did eventually hit on the main point: There isn’t a Democrat in the House who can explain what the Biden family did to receive that money.
It’s time Republicans stop falling for the sideshow and get an answer to that question.
