The Hunter Biden Transcript March 1, 2024 Click here to read the whole thing. Hunter Biden’s opening statement: I am here today to provide the committees with the one uncontestable fact that should end the false premise of this inquiry: I did not involve my father in my business, not while I was a practicing lawyer, not in my investments or transactions, domestic or international, not as a board member, and not as an artist, never. You read this fact in the many letters that have been sent to you over the last year as part of your so-called impeachment investigation. You heard this fact when I said it weeks ago standing outside of this building. You heard this fact from a parade of other witnesses, former colleagues, and business partners of mine, including my uncle, who has testified before you in similar proceedings. And now, today, you hear this fact directly from me. For more than a year, your committees have hunted me in your partisan political pursuit of my dad. You have trafficked in innuendo, distortion, and sensationalism, all the while ignoring the clear and convincing evidence staring you in the face: You do not have evidence to support the baseless and MAGA-motivated conspiracies about my father because there isn’t any. You have built your entire partisan house of cards on lies told by the likes of Gal Luft, Tony Bobulinski, Alexander Smirnov, and Jason Galanis. Luft, who is a fugitive, has been indicted for his lies and other crimes; Smirnov, who has made you dupes in carrying out a Russian disinformation campaign waged against my father, has been indicted for his lies; Bobulinski, who has been exposed for the many false statements he has made; and Galanis, who is serving 14 years in prison for fraud. Rather than follow the facts as they’ve been laid out before you in bank records, financial statements, correspondence, and other witness testimony, you continue your frantic search to prove the lies you and those you rely upon keep peddling. Yes, they are lies. To be clear, I have made mistakes in my life, and I have squandered opportunities and privileges that were afforded to me. I know that. I am responsible for that. And I am making amends for that. But my mistakes and my shortcomings are my own and not my father’s, who has done nothing but devote his entire life to public service and trying to make this country a better place to live. During my battle with addiction, my father was there for me. He helped save my life. His love and support made it possible for me to get sober, stay sober, and rebuild my life as a father, a son, a husband, and a brother. What he got in return for being a loving, supportive parent is a barrage of hate-filled conspiracy theories that hatched this sham impeachment inquiry and continue to fuel unrelenting personal attacks against him and me. Over the last year, Republicans have taken my communications out of context, relied on documents that have been altered, and cherry-picked snippets of financial or other records to misrepresent what really happened. Examples of this include a few references to my family in emails or texts that I sent when I was in the darkest days of my addiction. If you try to do that today, my answers will reveal your tactics and demonstrate the truth that my father was never involved in any of my businesses. My testimony today should put an end to this baseless and destructive political charade. You have wasted valuable time and resources attacking me and my family for your own political gain when you should be fixing the real problems in this country that desperately need your attention. Thank you. And then the show began. Perhaps my favorite exchange: Mr. Swalwell: At any time your father was in government, did he ever operate a hotel? The Witness: No, he has never operated a hotel. Mr. Swalwell: So he’s never operated a hotel where foreign nationals spent millions at that hotel while he was in office? The Witness: No, he has not. Mr. Swalwell: Did your father ever employ in the Oval Office any direct family member to also work in the Oval Office? The Witness: My father has never employed any direct family members, to my knowledge. Mr. Swalwell: While your father was president, did anyone in the family receive 41 trademarks from China? The Witness: No. Mr. Swalwell: As President and leader of the party, has your father ever tried to install as chairperson of the party a daughter-in-law or anyone else in the family? The Witness: No. And I don’t think that anyone in my family would be crazy enough to want to be chairperson of the DNC. Mr. Swalwell: Has your father ever in his time as an adult been fined $355 million by any State that he worked in? The Witness: No he has not, thank God. Mr. Swalwell: Anyone in your family ever strike a multi-billion-dollar deal with the Saudi government while your father was in office? The Witness: No. Mr. Swalwell: That’s all I’ve got. The Witness: Thank you. The big take-away from his 7 hours of closed-door testimony is that whatever you may think of Hunter Biden — and of his father for loving his troubled son — there is “no there there.” Whereas, if you read Volume I and Volume II of the Mueller report, it’s virtually all there — except for the parts missing because of obstruction of justice so egregious that more than 1,000 former Republican and Democratic federal prosecutors deemed it unquestionably indictable. Watch! (2 minutes). Shamefully, only one Republican, Mitt Romney, voted to convict Trump the first time around. His second impeachment came a lot closer — 57-43 — but failed to reach the required two-thirds because Mitch McConnell would go only so far as to call Trump “morally and practically” responsible for the January 6 mayhem . . . but argued that punishment should be meted out by the criminal justice system, not the Senate. The evidence of his guilt was on TV for all the world to see. Joe Biden, by contrast, now stands accused of . . . what, exactly? Based on . . . what, exactly? Anybody know? BONUS Ranking Trump’s worst business failures — fun!