2020 Democratic candidate Joe Biden on Saturday night walked back his declaration that he would not comply with a potential subpoena in President Donald Trump’s Senate impeachment trial.
I know there will be a Tsunami of Gloom here on this one, but I don’t think so. It heads off some things which don’t need to be at issue.
And it renders all the more noticeable the GOP tendency to, well, be lawless.
It wasn’t a backtrack. He just provided a preface to assuage the NPR liberals. Biden won’t blindly promise to abide any subpoena here because any such subpoena is fundamentally illegitimate and obviously so. He has no evidence or testimony of value or relevance to provide regarding Trump’s misconduct.
While he said, “I would obey any subpoena that was sent to me”, he went on to say there was no legitimate reason for him to receive a subpoena as he was not a witness to Trump’s wrongdoing.
I don’t think it’s fair to say he backtracked, as he’s essentially saying the same thing. I expect he’ll fight any subpoena sent to him by the Senate as it pertains to the Impeachment trial.
Word.
Strategically, the Senate can’t have a short, trial and still call Biden, as he’ll fight their subpoena. They can’t call Biden, and yet, not allow Dems to call their witnesses.
So, if they open this can of worms, I would expect Roberts would command direct witnesses like Pompeo, Mulvaney, Duffey, among others to testify while recusing Biden. If he’s on the up and up. A big if, I do realize.
Dems please, please, when Trump wants to subpoena anyone agree.
Only after all the House subpoenas are answered and Trump will testify.
Everything he says or Tweets must be challenged with “You First”.
You just know that the State Dept. is sitting on quite a bit of correspondence about Biden and other EU officials concerning corruption in Ukraine. Now if Petty PompousAss releases those documents and not the current 3 Amigos and a drug deal then the fix is in.
So this is the 291st time that he has to clarify his statement.
May someone high in the sky help us all if he is nominated. I will vote for the D after his name, but we will all need help.
Wouldn’t Trump have released it by now if he had anything? It’s not like he’s known for his patience or strategic thinking. Not to mention, I don’t for one second think Biden abused his position as VP.
You don’t think the Russians are working on that right now?
No Biggie.
Biden is a first class idiot. You are running for president while finding yourself at the center of an impeachment scandal and you haven’t got your most basic posture together? You just wing it, crash, rewing, crash, then fold? It’s a sorry preview of what a Biden presidency would look like.
can’t ask for anything more
not my ideal choice but we’ve had worse presidents
You’d think so, but 1) that would require Trump to have knowledge of said documents; 2) aides not carrying out his orders-again; and 3) McConnell grabbing said documents, then sitting on them.
I second that.
The right answer is that Biden would be happy to testify in front of the Senate…after Trump had just finished testifying.
Get to keep to high ground while never actually having to testify.
There aren’t any sighs big enough for this. Moving the focus away from the new Stalin is so frickin easy. The greatest threat to the country golfs while the press chases Joe around trying to get him to answer questions that are insulting, and everyone piles on.
I think Biden is missing a golden opportunity, here. Sure, let them subpoena him. Let them ask him questions. But then just try to keep him from saying whatever he likes, in the full glare of the TV cameras. What are they going to do, cut off his mic? Have him gagged?
The right answer is “Yes, I’ll obey a subpoena, like every American should”, which makes him look law abiding and moral, and draws a direct comparison with the lawless behavior of Trump and his people. Followed with what he said, which is that he has nothing to say about the reasons Trump was impeached, he has no first hand knowledge of his interference in Ukraine or how he he’d funds, so he’s not going to be able to help the case for or against Trump the way Bolton, Mulvaney, etc would do. Again, it calls out the lawless behavior of the Trump people, as well as their cover up of what happened.
If Biden ends up there testifying and all these other people don’t, then the Republicans will have shown America that they aren’t interested in justice. And, Biden up there, with Schiff questioning him, will destroy the entire “Ukraine corruption by the Biden’s” angle…Republicans are stupid to want that testimony, but they are arrogant enough to think they can “own the libs” by doing this.
VP Biden was a Senator long enough to know how to deflect a question! The smart answer would’ve been, “what Senate trial? Who knows if there will even be a trial.” Biden’s failure to give a smart answer, is his biggest problem: he’s losing it, and the it he’s losing was never enough to even win the nomination any of the other times he ran and lost.