Joe Biden backtracks, says he would comply with impeachment subpoena
After declaring he would refuse to comply with a subpoena in President Trump’s impeachment trial, Joe Biden backtracked and said he would testify if hauled before Senate lawmakers.
The former vice president on Saturday sought to clarify the comments he made on Friday when he told the Des Moine Register’s editorial board that the grounds to call him were “specious” and said the focus needed to stay on Trump.
A Senate trial date has not been set but Republicans have floated the idea of hauling Biden and his son Hunter to Capitol Hill to testify about the younger Biden’s work for a Ukrainian gas company while the elder Biden was vice president and in charge of overseeing American policy toward Ukraine at the time.
“I would obey any subpoena that was sent to me,” Biden said at a town hall event in Fairfield, Iowa on Saturday — a complete 180-degree turn from comments he made the day before.
“I shouldn’t have answered the question,” the presidential wannabe told a reporter later, as reported by The New York Times.
The Democratic front-runner was asked by the Des Moines Register if he stood by previous comments that he would refuse to comply with a subpoena from the Senate in the impeachment inquiry.
Biden, 77, said testifying in an attempt to clear the air would only take the media narrative away from Trump.
“You guys are going to cover for three weeks anything that I said,” he told the Register’s executive editor Carol Hunter.
“And (Trump’s) going to get away. You guys buy into it all the time. Not a joke…” he continued.
But the comments did just that anyway and the former Delaware senator spent Sunday mopping up the remarks — taking to Twitter to “clarify” that he has always cooperated with “legitimate congressional oversight requests.”
“But I am just not going to pretend that there is any legal basis for Republican subpoenas for my testimony in the impeachment trial,” Biden tweeted.
“That is the point I was making yesterday and I reiterate: this impeachment is about Trump’s conduct, not mine,” he continued.
Source: Read Full Article