Biden tries to explain why he would refuse to testify in impeachment trial
Former Vice President Joe Biden sought Saturday to explain why he would defy a congressional subpoena if called to testify in the Senate trial of President Donald Trump, tweeting that he has always followed the law but that there was no “legal basis” for him to be called as a witness in the impeachment proceedings.
Some Republicans, to shift the focus of the impeachment heat away from Mr. Trump, have argued that Mr. Biden and his son Hunter must testify about their engagements in Ukraine. Democrats have said this is irrelevant to the question of whether Mr. Trump abused his power when he asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to launch an investigation into the Bidens.
“In my 40 years in public life, I have always complied with a lawful order and in my eight years as VP, my office — unlike Donald Trump and Mike Pence — cooperated with legitimate congressional oversight requests,” Mr. Biden tweeted. “But I am just not going to pretend that there is any legal basis for Republican subpoenas for my testimony in the impeachment trial. That is the point I was making yesterday and I reiterate: this impeachment is about Mr. Trump’s conduct, not mine.”
Mr. Biden, a Democratic presidential candidate, first asserted that he would not participate in the trial several weeks ago and reiterated his stance Friday during an interview with the Des Moines Register’s editorial board.
Mr. Biden said that if he agreed to testify, it would shift the narrative from Mr. Trump’s behavior.
“You guys are going to cover for three weeks anything that I said. And (Mr. Trump’s) going to get away,” he said.
At the heart of Mr. Trump’s defense is the unsubstantiated claim that Mr. Biden pressured the Ukrainian government to fire its top prosecutor to protect his son, who served on the board of a Ukrainian energy company that had been under investigation, thus justifying his asking Mr. Zelenskiy to launch a probe. On
Twitter and at political rallies, Mr. Trump often claims there was something nefarious in Hunter Biden’s taking the position while his father was vice president.
Mr. Biden has vehemently defended himself and his son, saying neither did anything wrong.
White House officials and Trump allies ignored House subpoenas to testify in the impeachment inquiry at Mr. Trump’s direction. The House voted on Dec. 18 to impeach Mr. Trump on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
The Senate will hold a trial to determine whether to remove Mr. Trump from office once House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., sends the articles. She has been holding on to them in an effort to force Senate Republicans to compromise with Democrats on the parameters of a Senate trial.
Mr. Biden excluded his son from the family’s Christmas greeting, a move that backfired by attracting unwanted attention over social media. Hundreds of tweets asked where Hunter Biden was.