right now on "andrea mitchell reports," hunter bietd biden ignoring house republicans' subpoena to be interviewed behind closed doors, denouncing the accusations linking his father to his wrongdoing. speaking publically outside the capitol. >> for six years, i have been the target of the unrelenting trump attack machine shouting, where is hunter. here is my answer. i am here. >> not in a private deposition as ordered by the house subpoena. hunter biden says to prevent them from distorting his answers. will they hold him in contempt. house republicans with

support about to start debating a resolution to open an impeachment inquiry into president biden this hour, despite providing no evidence that the president was at all involved in his son hunter's questionable business deals. a day after president biden sharply criticized israel's prime minister netanyahu, for the first time, mr. biden meets in the white house with hostage families today along with overwhelming general assembly vote in favor of a cease-fire in gaza adding international pressure on israel to do more to limit civilian casualties. good day, everyone. i'm andrea mitchell on a big day on capitol hill here. house republicans are going after president biden and his son hunter, pushing an impeachment inquiry against the president. the house is debating and it today, despite having no hard evidence linking the president to his son's foreign business

dealings. on capitol hill this morning, hunter biden slamming the impeachment inquiry, defending his father, despite a congressional subpoena, refusing to appear for a closed door deposition after pushing to testify publically instead. >> during my battle with addiction, my parents were there for me. they literally saved my life. in the depths of my addiction, i was extremely irresponsible with my finances. but to suggest that is grounds for an impeachment inquiry is beyond the absurd. it's shameless. there's no evidence to support the allegations that my father was financially involved in my business, because it did not happen. james comber, jim jordan, jason smith and their colleagues have

distorlted the facts. they have lied over and over about every aspect of my personal and professional life, so much so that their lies have become the false facts believed by too many people. >> joining me now, ryan nobles, monica alba, former federal prosecutor paul butler and former top communications advisor to the attorney general garland, anthony coley. ryan, start us off. defiant hunter biden speaking about this for the first time. he wrote a book, but this was really an extraordinary statement today. what's the reaction from republicans, james comber, jim jordan, to the fact he is ignoring the subpoena -- by the way, jim jordan ignored a subpoena. he was in contempt really of congress for refusing to testify. do republicans have the votes for this impeachment inquiry?

we have only heard of one, ken buck, saying he wouldn't vote for it. >> reporter: to answer your last question on the impeachment inquiry, it seems likely that republicans will ultimately vote to formalize an impeachment inquiry into the president. this interview with hunter was the foundation of. what we saw here play out was hunter biden essentially attempting to use a public relations strategy here to try and box republicans in and force them to accept his offer to testify publically as opposed to testifying behind closed doors. that plea was very much -- fell on deaf ears when it cams to republicans. they believe that they have the subpoena power. they have the authority to set the terms for how they elicit information that they are looking for as part of the investigation. they believe it would be more beneficial for them from an investigative standpoint to talk to hunter biden initially behind closed doors where the cameras are not rolling, people are not

attempting to make a show out of it, ask him detailed questions, and then move it into a public setting down the road if it warrants it. hunter biden's legal team contends that this would just be an attempt by republicans to take his testimony out of context, to only release certain excerpts as opposed to releasing the entire testimony in full. they do not want to be a party of that because it could lead to more trouble. what this amounts to is a standoff between house republicans and hunter biden that the white house is now deeply connected to where it ultimately could end up with hunter biden facing a contempt of congress charge. republicans have vowed to move forward with that as their next step. they will have to file a report. it will have to go through committee and be voted on by the entire house. that could tak and it likely won't happen until the new year. if that were to happen, it would then land on the desk of attorney general garland to

decide whether or not to prosecute charges of contempt of congress and could potentially add to hunter biden's legal woes. what we saw play out today between both republicans and democrats was a bit of a sideshow, a public relations effort on both ends. what it tangibly means is we will likely have this be forced to end up in a court of law before it is settled. >> monica, how is the white house reacting to this? i know they don't react to anything regarding hunter. the impeachment inquiry they have been denouning as political. what if anything are they saying about hunter and the strategy to go public and defy a subpoena? >> reporter: what is notable is that you are right that the white house typically when it comes to hunter biden's legal woes and developments doesn't like to weigh in, likely just referring those to his own personal attorneys, to the department of justice. but today, an administration official is telling us that they actually found hunter biden's words outside the capitol this morning, quote, powerful and

forceful to play out where they view this and how the white house really also views this in terms of where president biden has said on the record multiple times that he really believes and has argued that anything that links him to his son's potential business dealings here that are problematic is in the president's own words, a bunch of lies. that's what he called it just last week when he was asked. when we know he has weighed in on this, he has made a point to speak to the personal connection here, of course, between a father and son, saying that he supports hunter, he loves him, and that he wants to continue to see him rebuild his life. that's what so much of this is about for the president, of course, because there is a fear among those very close to the president who we have spoken to that if hunter biden were to relapse or if anything were to happen that that would be something that would, of course, take such an emotional toll on the president that would weigh so heavily on him and the first

lady that that is something that's always really in the back of his mind. you saw there earlier today, hunter biden even saying, thanking his parents for everything they did to support him as he has been on this road to recovery. then something else that was interesting today, is that the president's re-election campaign, that political arm, did speak out on the larger impeachment inquiry saying that they really tie this to some in the republican party who are former president trump supporters who are the ones who are pushing a lot of what they call these baseless claims. they are putting it squarery on that, saying the reason it's political is because those maga minions in their words are the ones trying to make this a big point of attention when they can't point to some other things the democratic campaign argues they are able to do for the american people. they really do put this in those terms politically, but we know, of course, that hunter biden is facing these charges and will

likely could be a part of two criminal trials while his own father next year is seeking re-election. that political reality for the white house is obviously a stark one as well. >> let's talk about the legal aspects of this. paul butler, first to you. the legal implications for hunter biden in ignoring a subpoena. i misspoke earlier because jim jordan ignored the subpoena from the january 6 impeachment committee, but they didn't refer it to doj. so he never was in contempt. he could be held in contempt. >> he totally could be. that's totally what could happen. the house sometimes has closed door depositions before it presents a witness in open court. the house january 6 committee did that with many of its witnesses. if you are subpoenaed by congress, you kind of have to show up or you could be held in contempt. the question is, will there

actually be consequences? what would have to happen is that the house oversight committee would have to vote for a certificate of contempt. that certificate would have to be approved by a majority of the house. then the house would have to refer that to the united states attorney for district of columbia. since 2008, the u.s. attorney for dd.c. received ten of those referrals from the house. he has only prosecuted two. he or she has only prosecuted two. the odds are even if hunter biden doesn't have a defense to not showing up, which he does not, it's unlikely that ultimately he will be -- he will face legal consequences. >> mark meadows never did. they have taken -- it's interesting responses. >> steve bannon, he was convicted. he was sentenced to four months. he is awaiting review of that. he could end up serving four months for contempt of congress.

>> anthony, let's talk about the larger issue of impeachment. we have seen no evidence. they haven't been able to provide any evidence connecting joe biden to his son's businesses. impeachment is supposed to be high crimes and misdemeanors by the president of the united states, not something that his son did. >> that's exactly right. before i get to impeachment, let me talk about hunter. what he did today was aggressive, he and his lawyers. it was an aggressive move. it was right move. house republicans have a history of cherry picking things said in private and releasing them publically. >> the video of january 6. >> without context, all in an effort to shape a public narrative. it was very wise for hunter biden to say, if i'm going to testify, i'm going to do under the bright lights of transparency. i will let the public decide for themselves what the reality is.

to the larger issue of impeachment, this is a vivid example of government overreach. i would argue with one of the most narrow majorities in congress, house republicans would be better served by focusing on issues that people say they care about, like reducing health care costs, about addressing gun violence. instead, they have chosen this more narrow option of trying to appeal and rally to a base, a base that still believes to this day in the big lie that this election was stolen, which it was not. i would argue that, yeah, they are going to have some success in rallying their base, yes. but the issue of appealing to the broader electorate of democrats and republicans and independents, they are not going to be successful. >> one point i would make is the politics of this are they could then say that the twice-impeached president, former president donald trump, is no different from the current

president under impeachment inquiry. it helps them reshape the narrative, which is important to them. when you look at the children or relatives of presidents of the united states, we have a lot of history here going all the way back to just about every president that you have covered, nixon, carter, all of them, had a sibling or some relative that was under some suspicion. the fact that jared kushner has reported $2 billion hedge fund that was negotiated while he was still a white house aide, because on january 6, he happened to be in the persian golf and they announced that many late january after the inaugural in february, to someone who had never been in the hedge fund business before, was a real estate developer, is extraordinary. >> i would hope my colleagues at the justice department are looking into that. they don't always tell us what they are investigating. that's certainly based on public reporting, that is something

that at the very least deserves their attention. >> paul butler? >> hunter biden is under indictment in two federal courts. he has been transparent about his struggles with addiction and his criminal acts. the two indictments say squat about president joe biden. the constitutional standard for impeachment is high crimes and misdemeanors. the house has had a committee looking at biden for months now. actually, two committees. they haven't come up with anything approaching the constitutional standard. what they have come up with is a bunch of letters which are apparently hunter biden paying back his dad and his uncle money that he owes them. >> let me add that, finally, james comber and jim jordan have spoken to reporters after all of this happened and said they are going to look into his failure

to show. we expect to depose the president's son. we will be more than happy to have a public hearing with him. jordan said, there's a process, when asked about contempt. you have to file a report. we will begin looking at that. both lawyers for the oversight committee and the judiciary committee will move in that direction toward contempt. that's another potentially criminal proceeding, once the referral goes up. we have to also point out that the indictment -- the tax case against hunter biden was just stunning in all of its implications. you could argue whether or not that should have been brought against him, which his attorneys can argue. just the political impact of the gritty details in that are something that they will have to deal with during a presidential campaign. paul, anthony, thanks. thanks to monica, of course, and to ryan, for starting us off. growing concerns, the

president's sharpest criticism of prime minister netanyahu with the high casualty rates in gaza. a setback for president zelenskyy on military aid. we will be back in 60 seconds. s. a driver's license? oh. what did you get us? [ chuckling ] with the click of a pen, you can a new volkswagen at the sign, then drive event. sign today and you're off in a new volkswagen during the sign, then drive event.

in his sharpest criticism since the israel/hamas war again of israel's conduct of the war, president biden said tuesday, israel is losing international support for what he called, quote, indiscriminate bombing in ga. he delivered that blunt message during an off camera campaign fund-raiser in washington, saying thaisrael's prime minist netanyahu has, quote, a tough decision to make, adding, i think he has change and with this government, this government in isrls making it very difficult for him t move. the president said that far right members of the israeli government, like the national security minister, do not want a

two-state solution with the palestinians and the change must be made -- changes must be made to israel's government. prime minister netanyahu hoped the two could reach an agreement about what happens after the war. but he continued saying, i will not allow the entry into gaza of those who educate for terrorism, support terrorism and financepu solution that involves the palestinians from the west bank. there's a lot to go over. the visits with the war cabinet. we knew there were public and private postures by the president. then some criticism from blinken and certainly from austin last week. this is the president of the united states opening what had been a healed wound, i should

say, with netanyahu because of the past conflicts before the war. in past years. >> the president is responding to the nature of the warfare in gaza, which instead of being a targeted assault on hamas has really been a bombing campaign against the entire palestinian population of gaza. the world has been very uncomfortable with the massive number of civilian casualties. estimates differ, but somewhere around the 20,000 figure, with two-thirds being women and children. also, just the fact that people are being crowded into a very small area in southern gaza after being sent there to be in a so-called safe zone. the fatalities continue with the same strategy being executed in the south. the president recognizes that israel is burning through a reserve of international support. if we are going to break this

cycle of violence, we have to work towards two states for two people. he is setting the foundation for pushing forward on that vision. >> you were one of the first senators to call for a cease-fire. do you feel that there might be more of your colleagues joining you? >> i think at this point, people have settled into the pattern that they have established, whether they called for humanitarian pause, cessation of hostilities. many of the folks using those words are all making the same point. this strategy of bombing -- it's the first time the president called it indiscriminate bombing -- is unacceptable in terms of its casualties on civilians. it's not only horrific in its own right in terms of the damages done, but it really damages israel going forward. by that i mean, undermining

relationships with nations that signed up for the abraham concords, with saudi arabia, and proceeding to affect international support and aid to israel, including aid from the united states. discussions are different now than a year ago. >> let me ask you about the outcome of cop28. the annual climate conference ended. it was extended for a couple days to try to reach a better agreement on reductions in emissions. in the past, you have accused team biden of failing to address climate change. with this landmark deal to transition away fromossil fuels, critics say, the pledge doesn't do enough to reduce global warming to within the 1.5 degree celsius target in time, by 2030. should they have gone further? >> absolutely. the language that was put out was transitioning away from fossil fuel energy systems, a

phase down of coal power. those are kind of generic statements that anyone paying attention would say need to happen. it's the fact that there was no pledge of any kind to stop building new fossil fuel infrastructure. here in america, i have been critical of the biden administration for green lighting one fossil project after another. we produce more gas than any other nation. we export more fossil gas than any other nation. we have produced more oil than any other nation. those have all gone up significantly during the last three years. yet we are saying to the world, join us -- let's join together and tackle the challenge of climate. yet, we're producing more and more fossil fuels. it's been really driven among our younger americans of cynicism that -- and frustration that the u.s., which needs to be leading by the power of its example, is leading with an example that will take us to

climate oblivion. >> china is building more coal plants. that's a big factor here. at this stage with only a few years to go until 2030, is it even possible to reach this goal, after the hottest year of climate has ever had? >> in terms of 1.5 degrees, it's not possible. unless you assume something extraordinary. in other words, if you burn fossil fuels at the rate we are right now, we will use up the carbon budget in six years, which means six years from now, we have to go to zero carbon. that's not at all where we are headed. we are increasing fossils that we burn each year. we are increasing the amount of carbon we put in the atmosphere. after 20 years of pretty intense international conversation, we are still going the wrong direction.

that's deeply, deeply disturbing. each nation wants to say, hey, we will just kind of -- on the demand side, better insulate our buildings, put electric cars out there and charging stations, but we want to take our fossils out of the grount ground, because that's money for us. every country says the same thing. it doesn't matter where you are in the world. the result is that everybody is producing more fossils, burning more fossils. oral arguments expected to

begin next year. justices could issue a ruling by the end of june. more than half of the legal -- the white house warned in a statement that the decision could, quote, undermine the fda's scientific independent judgement and would reimpose outdated access to safe medication abortions. mike quigley on the republican-led impeachment inquiry debate, set to begin at any moment in the house of representatives. the unrelenting efforts to keep the financial and military aid flowing in ukraine. you are watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. tchec . which is now more important than ever. ♪♪ liberty mutual customized my car insurance and i saved hundreds. with the money i saved, i started a dog walking business. i was a bit nervous at first but then i figured it's just walking, right? [dog barks] oh.

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ok. we are watching the house floor where debate on whether to open an impeachment inquiry into president biden is about to start. the clerk is reading it. we will jump in as soon as it begins. a vote is expected this afternoon. there will be an hour of debate, give or take. this is amidst a major disagreement on u.s. aid to ukraine. they have other stuff to do and it's not done. president biden and ukraine's president zelenskyy presenting a united front at the white house yesterday. they were urging congress to approve the aid package before congress heads home. they could head home tomorrow or the next day. republicans are rejecting that request demanding tougher u.s. immigration laws before congress goes on break, until mid january. zelenskyy rebuking some

republicans who suggested ukraine give up some territory to russia. >> translator: that's insane to be honest. i have question to this people if they are ready to give up their children to terrorists. i think no. >> joining me now is mike quigley of illinois. heed me with president zelenskyy yesterday. co-chairs the ukraine caucus and serves on the appropriations committee. is there any deal afoot to resolve this border dispute and get something -- i don't know how you would get it to the floor unless they stayed in town. >> no one is staying in town. i was asked, are we done this week? we are leaving this week, but we're not done with the people's business. i suspect the soonest we will vote on any aid to ukraine will be in january, maybe february. it's truly a mistake to tie it -- a critical foreign policy with real impacts on our own national security.

president biden has signalled that we are open to those discussions and additional aid to address the southern border issues. tieing the two together is a mistake. it hurts us and our allies. >> it's important to the nation. it's important to your state of illinois. i have been to ukrainian village in illinois, in chicago, and talked to people there and seeing the church there and what they are doing and housing refugees. what people seem to be ignoring is that 95% of this aid goes to the u.s. defense companies. this is money being plowed back into our gdp. >> plowed back into our gdp, but the u.s. and our allies have been giving ukraine much of our older technology and weaponry and replacing it with modern era. it's keeping us safe.

i know you mentioned general milley and secretary austin. it's time to listen to them. they said, if we let putin's aggression go unattacked, he will continue this and we will have to virtually double our defense budget. there will be additional bloodshed because putin won't stop at ukraine. >> i want to also talk to you about the impeachment inquiry. while they are -- >> coming up. >> they are not resolving the budget dispute, the debate is about to start. i can't see even though they have a three-vote margin, if all of those republicans, minus ken buck, he says, vote for it, they will be able to launch this impeachment inquiry. what are the democrats going to do? >> look, we have two international crisis and plenty of problems at home.

he will remind speaker johnson that he said the trump impeachment would cause irreparable damage to our country. that on a president who attempted to extort our ally, ukraine, in one measure, and in the other, he incited a violent insurrection, a coup against our own country that was on tape in both instances. in this case, we have allegations against president biden, which are unsubstantiated. i believe my friends across the aisle have misplaced priorities and are doing this for extraordinarily dangerous partisan reasons. >> let me ask you about israel. the president's sharpest criticism to date against prime minister netanyahu, it was a break yesterday in what they have been trying to do, what he has been trying to do, because of the high casualty rates. there's no question hamas started the war october 7th, it

was gruesome, savage, brutal, unprecedented. but the argument from the president and certainly from lloyd austin and secretary tony blinken and others is that israel is at risk of losing so much support in europe, the u.n., elsewhere, across the united states because of the casualty rates. if you believe even a fraction of the hamas claims, they have lost 18,000 people, including 7,500 children. what are your constituents saying about krit sidesing israel now? >> sure. israel has the right to defend itself. i was in gaza after a conflict in 2009 and saw just exactly how hamas uses civilians in the most cynical way possible. but it is also true that how the war is prosecuted has a lot of impact on the future.

if you want to tear hamas down, understand it's not just a military force. it's a movement. the way you move forward on this conflict if what it does in effect is recruit further hamas soldiers in the future, you are not accomplishing your ultimate goal. israel has to be very careful under extraordinarily difficult circumstances. they need to improve how they're doing that. >> right now, hostages are meeting with the president for the first time. they met on zoom before, but they are in the white house. we may be hearing from some of the hostage family members, including one -- at least one released hostage, meeting with the president right now. i want your reaction on a busy day up here to hunter biden ignoring a subpoena from the house committee. we know what democrats said when jim jordan did the same thing, saying he would have a deposition in public or a hearing in public, but he did

not want to meet privately with the committee, which has been the procedure for many committees, because he felt that they would not accurately reflect his testimony. now they are threatening contempt. >> i was part of the first impeachment investigation as a member of the intel committee and many other investigations in which republicans thumbed their nose at lawful subpoenas. i don't think anyone should ignore a lawful subpoena, a congressional subpoena needs to be serious in how it's put forward. it needs to be responded to as well. i can't blame hunter biden though wanting this to be public and asking for the condition that it be public. i don't know why my republican colleagues have a concern with that, because they are the ones for open government as much as anyone. right? now is the time to be public and transparent, because this is a serious investigation. >> congressman mike quigley suby

much. best wishes for a happy holiday season and merry christmas. >> to you as well. the pressure campaign, how the new sharp rhetoric from president biden could lead to new dip low the mattek challenges for israel. you are watching "andrea mitchell reports." we will have that as well as the impeachment debate coming up next. you are watching msnbc. debate cp next you are watching msnbc e means t. si mi papá estuviera vivo, sé que él tuviera orgulloso también de vivir de esta viviendo una vida como la que estamos viviendo ahora. es electricidad aquí es salud.

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before and we are reinforced in seeing and believing that we could have no better friend in washington or in the white house than president biden himself and his administration. >> pope francis today called for an immediate release of all the hostages. do you believe the vatican can help bring your loved ones home? >> i will add, i'm abigail's great aunt. we are blessed because she is back with her family after she was a hostage for 50 days and witnessed both of her parents being murdered on october 7th. what i can tell you is that abigail is a miracle. she is a light in this very dark time. metaphorically, a lot of our families that are here today, we are all one big family looking to get all of these people's sons and fathers and mothers out, that we are here because the president and his team have

been bringing out light in this dark time. abigail, who is a 4-year-old, is a symbol of that light. about we come to the christmas holiday, i hope that the pope continues to speak and others around the world, not only pray, but pray for us, pray for our families, pray for our leaders, pray for the president and that the pope and all that he can do is to push. we would love a christmas miracle. we would love all of our loved ones to come back and be with us for christmas. when you talk about the pope, our hope is that he and others like himself will influence these people in the middle east that are all actors in this part of getting these hostages out. that is all of our hope for a christmas miracle. >> talk about what kind of communication you have been getting, updates on a daily basis, what kind of communication you have been getting from the white house? thank you for talking with us. >> i can say this. since a day or two after the

massacre on october 7th and the mass hostage taking by hamas, we all began to be contacted by representatives of the united states government, the embassy in israel, secretary blinken, the president. within a few days, president biden was on a video call with us. we have been in frequent and transparent contact with administration officials. we have also really benefitted, i think, and most importantly our sons, daughters, fathers, sisters, brothers, mothers, have also really seen how in a very divided time, members of congress, members of the senate from wall to wall have shown solidarity with us. >> are you awaiting word on your loved ones and release, was the president able to share anything about their condition, about where they are? >> we are going to keep the

content of the conversation private. it was a private meeting between representatives of the eight families still and a ninth family or two other families whose loved ones have been released already. we are going to keep the private conversations private. >> obviously, the world witnessed the great miracle, as you indicated, when some of the hostages were freed during the temporary cease-fire. what are you requesting of the u.s. going forward to secure the release of your loved ones? as it relates to the desire for another cease-fire, is there any information you learned about the potential that that could happen any time soon? >> as i said before, we will keep the private conversations private. what we do know and we have seen, the u.s. administration, from the previous round of negotiations and hostage release, the u.s. administration is completely committed to getting the hostages out, the

eight americans who remain there, and the other nearly 130. we have no doubt about that. today's meeting with president biden and secretary blinken only reinforced that. they are willing and ready to do all that they possibly can by any number of means to get the hostages home. >> also -- one second. not just to talk about them as hostages. but to talk about them as people. that is what the president and the secretary blinken understand is that they are just not numbers and they are just not faces. they are sons, they are sons they are grandparents, they are mothers. that is what the president and his team understand. this is our last question. i'm going to answer by saying, we appreciate, we are thankful to the president and to his team, because we know that they are working 24 hours a day, and they are going to work through the holidays and they are going to do everything they can to

make sure all of our loved ones, real people, come home to us and the families across the world and in israel. thank you so much. thank you. >> did you receive any new information today about your family members? >> joining me now is new york times diplomatic writer, michael crowley. your response to this? >> it's heartbreaking. think about how long this has been going on, all the twists and turns and imagine these people as we watch this kind of geopolitical tragedy unfold and this international drama and' reminder of the families that are focused on their loved ones who are in the middle of it all, totally unseen, very little if any information about what's happening. for people who are not political professionals, they spoke well. i was struck, as you were, as

you suggest now, they seemed not to be applying pressure on the president. you sometime seize families who are upsays who feel the u.s. is not doing enough and are saying, mr. president, do more, we're not satisfied. these people seem to be basically supportive of president biden. it's a reminder that of all the pressures facing the american people, as he is trying to manage his relationship with israel, he is trying to manage his relationship with the arab world and international community, the u.n., there are eight americans who are being held in desperate circumstances right now who he wants to free and make sure are unharmed. the pressure and the three-dimensional chess here is -- it boggles the mind. >> in terms of what's happening on the ground there, the fact that israel's beginning to test flooding the tunnels. the president said yesterday very quietly, he has no idea whether that endangers the hostages and that we have been calling -- the u.s. has been

calling for a pause, a humanitarian pause, but is caught in this larger debate over a cease-fire and is alone in the security council and totally outvoted in general assembly. it's becoming a larger issue for the u.s. >> absolutely. just to remind your viewers -- this has been a point of confusion for a lot of people. a cease-fire implies a long-term halt to the fighting, which could last for weeks, months and in some cases years. the last cease-fire in gaza dates back to mid 2021 and was broken in october. what the u.s. is supporting now -- the u.s. is opposing cease-fires and was the veto to the u.n. security resolution to begin a cease-fire last week. the biden administration does support what they call humanitarian pauses in the fighting. that's what we had a few weeks ago where the fighting stopped for i believe it was seven days.

it's to get hostages out. hamas has demanding the release of people in prisons. president biden is opposing a cease-fire but is supportive of pauses if possible. what you hear u.s. officials say this week is that hamas is not negotiating or not negotiating in good faith on those pauses. they don't trust them. more generally, last point here, at the same time, you are seeing the pressure increase from the biden administration on the israeli government to scale down these operations, limit civilian casualties, be more diskrim netanyahu in their targeting. but it's fairly gentle pressure. i think we are far from a serious break where president bietden would put his foot down and say enough is enough.enough. >> michael crowley, thanks so much for always context. appreciate it. and now we go back to the house where debate on the impeachment inquiry resolution against president biden has begun. james comey, the head of oversight is standing right now as the rules committee and

oversight committees debate. >> several members of the biden family and their associates about these influence of peddling schemes, but we are facing obstruction from the white house. the white house is seeking to block key testimony from current and former white house staff. it's withholding thousands of records from joe biden's time as vice president. >> gentleman's time is expired. >> president biden must be held for his last corruption and obstruction. i urge my colleagues to support this important and necessary resolution. >> gentleman yields back. gentleman reserves, jent theman from massachusetts is recognized. >> mr. speaker, i need a map to get out of the rabbit hole mr. comer just took us down. if you want to know what on a impeachable offense looks like, here it is, when that man, want to be dictator told that angry, violent mob to attack this capitol building where we all are right now to overturn a free and fair election. this is what a smoking gun looks like. i now yield three minutes to the

gentleman of maryland, the distinguished ranking member of the committee on oversight and accountability mr. raskin. >> gentleman is recognized for three minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman. the reason mysteries are called who done its is because they start with a crime, and then you have to try to figure out who did it. the biden impeachment investigation isn't a who done it, it's a what is it? it's like an agatha christie novel where the mystery is what's the crime, and that gets very tedious very fast. after 11 months of this, no one can tell us what president biden's crime was, much less where it happened, when it happened, what the motive was, who the perpetrators were, or who the victims were. maybe the funniest thing i've ever seen in congress was yesterday in the rules committee when congressman neguse kept asking congressman reshen that willer what the crime is, and he

kept saying he didn't know what it was. that's why we need an impeachment investigation to find out. neguse kept asking him what will the impeachment investigation be looking for, and finally reshen that'ller said a high crime or misdemeanor, and neguse said, yes, but which one. neguse was involved in a real impeachment investigation of a real presidential offense, the incitement of a violent political insurrection against this congress, against the vice president of the united states, against the constitution, and against the election of 2020. we did not need sherlock holmes in a magnifying glass to find the presidential crime with donald trump. it came right into this house and smashed us in the face. now, it's true chairman comer has collected a mountain of evidence over the last 11 months. tens of thousands of pages of documents, dozens of hours of interviews with government officials, but all of it clearly shows that joe biden committed no crime. even their own witnesses that they called to the only public

hearing they had said there is not remotely enough evidence to justify impeachment. chairman comer has bragged on fox news about procuring 100% compliance with his subpoenas, so forget about obstruction, which i hear them muttering about today. mr. speaker, i played a game with the little kids, i asked them whether they'd seen a henway. when they asked what it is, 4 or 5 pounds. when i asked the little kids, they said what's a henway, they said 3 or 4 pounds, and they started looking for it and when the other kids came along, they said we're looking for uncle jamie's henway, and for hours they were looking r everywhere for my henway under the sofa and under the chairs and it could go on for days like that. mr. speaker, we're all looking for the republican party's henway. it just weighs 3 or 4 pounds, but it's costing us tens of

millions of dollars. please forgive me for spoiling the party here. i want to say this to america, there is no henway and this stupid blundering investigation is keeping us from getting any real work done for the people of america. i yield back, thank you, mr. chairman. >> gentleman from oklahoma is recognized. >> thank you, mr. speaker. i yield three minutes to my good friend, the distinguished chairman of the judiciary committee mr. jordan of ohio. >> gentleman from ohio is recognized for three minutes. >> thank you, mr. speaker. had is story as old as the hills, you got a politician who does certain things. those actions then benefit his family financially and then there's an effort to con steel it and sweep it under the rug. the best example is to go back to burisma, four key facts object hunter biden's voft with this company. hunter biden gets put on the board of burisma. hes not qualified to be on the

board of burisma. can you weigh in to help alleviate the pressure we are under. three days later the vice president of the united states now president joe biden goes to ukraine and conditions american tax dollars for ukraine on the firing of the prosecutor who was applying the pressure to the company hunter biden was on the board of. that's why we're going with an official impeachment inquiry today. that's why this needs to be investigated. resolution 918 and resolution 917 incorporated if we pass 918. three names mentioned in those two resolutions the one name of course is joe biden, president of the united states. the other two names in resolution 917 are two doj tax lawyers, mark daily and jack morgan, two guys we want to talk to that the biden justice department says we're not going to let you talk to them. with this vote we think we get to talk to those individuals. these two individuals initially said there should be tax felony tax charges for 2014, 2015, in

the hunter biden investigation. that's important because those are the years when the bulk of the income from burisma came to hunter biden. they initially said there should be felony tax charges for those years. we want to know why did you let the statute of limitations, intentionally let the statute of limitations lapse for those years? my theory is it's one thing to charge hunter biden on a gun charge in delaware, it's another thing to say we're not going to -- another thing to charge him on burisma tax years because that gets you to joe biden, that gets you to the white house. that's why we need this vote. the impeachment power as the chairman said is a power that solely resides in the house. when you have a majority of the house of representatives go on record, that sends a message. we get timely participation from the witnesses we need to talk to. finally, i would say this about this changing story from the white house, the changing story from the justice department. today hunter biden did a press conference. he was supposed to be in a

deposition. he did a press conference. at that press conference he said my father was not financially involved in the business. that's an important qualifier. we haven't heard that for three years, we haven't heard that. all we've heard is joe biden had no involvement. now his son does a press conference when he's supposed to be being deposed and says he wasn't financially involved. well, what involvement was it? we know there was phone calls, dinners, and meetings, what involvement was it. that's why we want to ask these questions with important witnesses. that's why this resolution is important. i urge a yes vote. with that i yield back. >> gentleman yields back. gentleman from massachusetts is recognized. >> i need to get a decoder ring. i now yield 1.5 minutes to the gentlewoman of new mexico, a distinguished member of the rules committee. >> gentle lady from new mexico is recognized for 90 seconds. >> mr. speaker every conspiracy theory we just heard has been debunked, not true, and distorted from the facts because

this impeachment inquiry is political vengeance directed by a twice impeached four-times indicted president and carried out by extreme maga republicans, republicans rejected my amendment to require the committees to hold at least one public hearing. why? because 11 months and a mountain of evidence and documents gathered so far proves that president biden respected the rule of law and fought corruption. republicans want to continue a secret investigation so they can distort the facts. for example, republicans tried to create a scandal about the $4,140 hunter paid to his dad in 2018. what really happened? joe biden paid his son's truck payments while hunter struggled with addiction. hunter paid his dad back. a parent's love is never without pain. a parent doesn't stop loving a child struggling with addiction. americans will see in those

truck payments some of their own attempts to help their struggling kids. shame on my colleagues for politicizing a parent's pain. a parent american knows what evidence of an impeachment looks like. the capitol police who were battered and beaten as trump tried to overturn an election know what an impeachable offense feels like. this puppet show is more of the same attack on our democracy that we saw here. >> gentle lady's time is expired. gentleman from massachusetts reserves. gentleman from oklahoma is recognized. >> thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, i yield two minutes to my good friend distinguished lady from indiana, ms. howchen. >> gentle lady is recognized for two minutes. >> thank you, mr. speaker today on the very day hunter biden ignored a subpoena from this body, we will vote to take the next critical step in formalizing the house's