Joe Biden has doubled down on his refusal to comply with Republicans threatening him with a subpoena to appear as a part of the Senate’s Burisma Holdings investigation. And until a court demands that he testify, that’s his right — just as it is President Trump’s right to refuse to comply instantly with the Democrats’ impeachment investigation.
This all perfectly exemplifies why the second article of impeachment charging Trump with “obstruction of Congress” is bogus.
I want to clarify something I said yesterday. 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.
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) December 28, 2019
The subpoenas should go to witnesses with testimony to offer to Trump’s shaking down the Ukraine government — they should go to the White House.
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) December 28, 2019
Biden’s first claim in his defense isn’t true — the Obama administration refused to comply in wholly legitimate congressional investigations all the time. But the rest of his declaration is absolutely valid. Trump has refused and ordered his associates to refuse dozens of subpoenas, some fair and some petty, over the course of his presidency, and now, Biden will do exactly the same thing.
It’s absolutely their right, to a point. There are limits to Congress’s subpoena power on the executive and on other people as well. These limits are usually litigated in the courts.
If the Senate truly believes it’s justified in subpoenaing Biden to investigate his universally renowned dealings as Vice President in combating corruption in Ukraine, it can take its complaint to court and force a judge to make the final determination. Then, and only then, will Biden’s refusal constitute an “obstruction” in any meaningful sense.
Biden’s defense is a good one, and it illuminates the stupidity of the “obstruction of Congress” charge in the Democrats’ articles of impeachment.
Absent a refusal to comply with a court order, Biden and Trump are obstructing nothing except the feelings of their political adversaries. But blinded by their single-minded pursuit to get Trump, Democrats have redefined reality to bring up a bogus “obstruction” charge, perhaps only to mimic the articles levied against Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton. If Democrats think refusing to treat Congress’s whims as law is an impeachable offense, then they’re going to be in big, big trouble if Biden clinches a victory next year.
