Democratic presidential contender Joe Biden on Saturday said there would be ‘no legal basis’ for Republicans to subpoena his testimony in President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial, clarifying remarks from Friday that drew criticism.
‘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,’ Biden said on Twitter.
‘But I am just not going to pretend that there is any legal basis for Republican subpoenas for my testimony in the impeachment trial,’ Biden added.
The former vice president tweeted that subpoenas should ‘go to witnesses with testimony to offer to Trump’s shaking down the Ukraine government — they should go to the White House.’
Trump and fellow Republicans want to call Biden and his son, Hunter, to appear as witnesses during the proceedings for alleged corruption in Ukraine.
But speaking to the editorial board of The Des Moines Register, Biden, the current front runner for the 2020 Democratic nomination, said that compliance with a subpoena would detract from the president’s own actions.
Former US Vice President Joe Biden told an Iowa editorial board on Friday that he would not comply if subpoenaed in an impeachment trial of President Donald Trump
In a series of tweets on Saturday, Biden clarified his remarks and hit out at Trump (left) and Vice President Mike Pence (right)
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,’ Biden said on Twitter
‘But I am just not going to pretend that there is any legal basis for Republican subpoenas for my testimony in the impeachment trial,’ Biden added
The former vice president tweeted that subpoenas should ‘go to witnesses with testimony to offer to Trump’s shaking down the Ukraine government — they should go to the White House.’
‘The reason I wouldn’t is because it’s all designed to deal with Trump doing what he’s done his whole life: trying to take the focus off him’, Biden told the newspaper, the The New York Times reports.
‘The issue is not what I did’.
Biden already said earlier this month that he wouldn’t voluntarily appear at a Senate impeachment trial – raising the prospect that he would have to be subpoenaed.
Eric Ueland, White House legislative affairs director, said December 3rd that Trump is demanding a full Senate trial with live witnesses if and when the House sends over articles of impeachment, which it did last week.
Since then, House Speaker and Democrat Nancy Pelosi and Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican majority leader, have been in a standoff over whether Trump administration witnesses can be called to testify at the trial.
House Speaker and Democrat Nancy Pelosi (pictured) and Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican majority leader, have been in a standoff over whether Trump administration witnesses can be called to testify at a Senate impeachment trial
Biden similarly told reporters during a campaign stop in Iowa on his ‘No Malarkey Tour’ that he wouldn’t appear voluntarily, because he doesn’t want to take the attention away from Trump’s ‘crimes’.
The 77-year-old insisted: ‘No, I’m not going to let them take their eye off the ball.
‘The President is the one who has committed impeachable crimes, and I’m not going to let him divert from that. I’m not going to let anyone divert from that’.
He did not address how he would respond to a subpoena until Friday.
‘This is all about a diversion’, Biden told the editorial board when asked about compliance with a subpoena.
‘And we play his game all the time. He’s done it his whole career’.
‘This is all about a diversion,’ Mr. Biden told an Iowa editorial board when asked about compliance with a subpoena in a Senate impeachment trial of President Donald Trump
In October it was revealed that Hunter Biden received monthly payments of $83,333 for ‘consulting services’ while serving on the board of one of Ukraine’s largest natural gas companies as a ‘ceremonial figure’ with a ‘powerful name’.
Trump has whipped up a scandal around the position as a way of attacking Joe Biden, his likely opponent in the 2020 presidential election.
Trump’s call for the Ukrainian president to launch an investigation into Hunter’s position within the company resulted in a whistleblower complaint that Trump was asking for dirt on his political opponents from a foreign government.
Trump was impeached this month by the House on the back of the whistleblower’s complaint.