'Bring it on': Democrat calls GOP probe into Justice Department and Hunter Biden 'projection'

WASHINGTON — House Republicans claimed in a press conference on Thursday that President Joe Biden was actively involved in overseas business dealings that involved his son Hunter. But a Democratic lawmaker characterized their claims as "fraudulent."

"Was Joe Biden directly involved with Hunter Biden's business deals, and is he compromised? That's our investigation," Rep. James Comer (R-KY) told reporters.

Rep. Tom Emmer (R-MN) was asked Thursday whether there is a concern about whether this could set a bad precedent that Congress was going after a private citizen. Emmer seemed confused. The reporter said that Biden might be president but his son has nothing to do with politics and isn't in an elected office.

"What you're going to see tomorrow night — you assume that Hunter Biden was operating in a vacuum, that he is on an island, that Joe Biden had nothing to do with it. That's — that's what the assumptions already been in the media and I think you're going to see a different picture," said Emmer.

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Reporters asked for him to clarify whether it was acceptable to go after a private citizen because their family member was in office.

"They were in business together," Emmer replied.

At the press conference, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) said that "equal justice under the law" was the key reason that he wanted to attack the Justice Department for going after angry parents. Those claims date back 2021, when far-right groups were ginning up fear that children were being taught to hate themselves in public schools under the guise of critical race theory.

The panic resulted in angry parents flooding school board meetings, demanding surveillance cameras in classrooms and demanding many books be removed from libraries for mentioning slavery and other things they found objectionable.

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At the time, the rage was so intense, that teachers, principals and administration officials began to experience death threats. That's when the Justice Department stepped in. Attorney General Merrick Garland never called the parents "domestic terrorists," though he did say that violent threats against school officials “could be the equivalent to a form of domestic terrorism.” It sent the far-right, including Jordan, to claim that Garland called parents terrorists and that it would be prosecuting them as such.

Raw Story spoke to Rep. Jackie Speier (D-CA) after the GOP press conference.

"It's as fraudulent as statements made by Donald Trump after the investigation," she said. "They recognize that they can't start an investigation of Hunter Biden because it has no relevance to the operation of governing. He's not part of the government. So, they have to link it somehow to the president. So, this is just basically smoke and mirrors to smear Hunter Biden and have that mud somehow thrown at the president."

Jordan claimed at the press conference that they had Justice Department whistleblowers that claimed Biden was weaponizing the DOJ. Speier called it "projection."

"What you do that's wrong, you project that someone else is doing," she explained. "It was the DOJ under Trump that became this political animal that has many of them now under suspicion of violating their oaths. So, bring it on because Merrick Garland is the squeakiest clean Boy Scout that DOJ will ever know."