>>> IT IS EXTREMELY DISTURBING TO SEE THE LACK OF PROFESSIONALISM, LACK OF GROUNDING, AND THE ABUSE OF PUBLIC RESOURCES, OF PUBLIC POWER, IN ORDER TO PURSUE SOMETHING THAT TRULY, WHOSE POINT AT THIS JUNCTURE IS VERY UNCLEAR. >> THIS WHOLE THING REALLY HAS BEEN A TREMENDOUS WASTE OF OUR LEGISLATIVE TIME AND THE PEOPLE'S RESOURCES. >> I CANNOT BELIEVE THAT THEY HAVE FOUND A NEW ALLOW. IT IS SO EMBARRASSING TO SIT IN THE ROOM FOR AN HOUR WHILE THEY TRY TO WEAVE CONSPIRACY THEORY AFTER CONSPIRACY THEORY THAT ONLY EMBARRASSES THEM FURTHER. >> IT'S VERY CLEAR THAT THERE'S NO THERE THERE. >> DEMOCRATS ON THE OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE REACTING TO YESTERDAY'S CLOSED DOOR DEPOSITION BY HUNTER BIDEN, WHO STRUCK A DEFIANT AND EMOTIONAL TONE DURING HIS TESTIMONY AS PART OF THE GOP-LED IMPEACHMENT INQUIRY INTO HIS FATHER, PRESIDENT BIDEN. HUNTER CONDEMNED THE INVESTIGATION AS A PARTISAN POLITICAL PURSUIT THAT WAS BASED ON A FALSE PREMISE AND FUELED BY LIES AND REITERATED HIS STANCE THAT HE NEVER INVOLVED HIS FATHER IN ANY OF HIS BUSINESS DEALINGS. WHILE ALSO ACKNOWLEDGING MISTAKES HE HAD MADE, POINTING TO HIS BATTLE WITH ADDICTION. HERE'S TOLD DURING THE SEVEN-HOUR LONG CLOSED DOOR DEPOSITION, THERE WERE WHAT'S BEING DESCRIBED AS HEATED MOMENTS BETWEEN REPUBLICANS AND DEMOCRATS REGARDING INTERRUPTIONS DURING LINES OF QUESTIONING. AFTER HIS TESTIMONY, HUNTER SAID IT WENT GREAT. REPUBLICANS HAVE YET TO TURN UP ANY EVIDENCE IN THEIR IMPEACHMENT INVESTIGATION. JOINING US NOW, CONGRESSIONAL INVESTIGATIONS REPORTER FOR "THE WASHINGTON POST," JACKIE ALEMANY, AND SENIOR POLITICAL COLUMNIST FOR "POLITICO," JONATHAN MARTIN. GOOD THE TO HAVE YOU BOTH WITH US THIS MORNING. JACKIE, I'LL START WITH YOU. IS THERE ANYTHING REPUBLICANS CAME UP WITH OF SUBSTANCE, AND AT WHAT POINT ARE PEOPLE GOING TO SAY THIS IS TAKING AWAY FROM OTHER INCREDIBLY IMPORTANT ISSUES OF OUR TIME, LIKE FOREIGN AID AND GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWNS AND REAL NEEDS OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE? >> MIKA, IF ANYTHING, REPUBLICANS HAVE TO RECKON WITH THE FACT THAT I'VE BEEN TOLD BY SEVERAL SOURCES WHO WERE IN THE ROOM FOR THAT EXTENDED HEARING YESTERDAY THAT HUNTER BIDEN HAPPENED TO BE ONE OF THE MOST PREPARED, DISCIPLINED, AND ON MESSAGE WITNESSES THEY'VE HAD APPEAR BEFORE THE COMMITTEE YET, WHO SPOKE VERY ELOQUENTLY ABOUT A BROAD SWATH OF EVIDENCE, SOME UNSUBSTANTIATED, SOME PRESENTED IN SORT OF DRIBS AND DRABS, TEXT MESSAGES AND COMMUNICATIONS, THAT JAMES COMER AND REPUBLICANS HAVE CHERRY-PICKED FROM THE MOUNTAIN OF RECORDS THEY HAVE OBTAINED SO FAR. AND THERE HAS BEEN STILL NO THERE THERE. FOR ANYONE WHO THOUGHT THIS WAS GOING TO BE THE SMOKING GUN, THE STAR WITNESS, IT DISAPPOINTED. HUNTER BIDEN, INSTEAD, SPOKE OF INSTANCES THAT REPUBLICANS HAVE POINTED TO AS WRONGDOING AS EXAMPLES OF HIM UNDER THE SPELL OF ADDICTION, BEING DRUNK OR HIGH AT THE TIME OF THOSE COMMUNICATIONS AND, QUITE FRANKLY, AS SOMEONE IN THE ROOM TOLD ME IN A READOUT, THAT HE WAS LYING ABOUT SOME OF THE TIMES WHERE HE SAID HIS FATHER WAS PRESENT TO CERTAIN BUSINESS PEOPLE, LIKE TEXT MESSAGES THAT HAVE BEEN OFTEN REFERENCED WHERE HE WAS IN COMMUNICATIONS WITH A CHINESE ASSOCIATE THAT HE WAS DOING BUSINESS WITH AND TEXTED HIM IN A WHATSAPP MESSAGE THAT HE WAS WITH HIS FATHER RIGHT NOW. HE SAID DURING THAT DEPOSITION THAT THAT WAS ACTUALLY A LIE AND THAT HE WAS UNDER THE INFLUENCE. I THINK THIS ALL GOES BACK TO THE BIGGER STORY ABOUT HUNTER BIDEN RIGHT NOW, WHICH IS THAT HE IS DETERMINED TO STAY SOBER AND HAS VIEWED THIS AS KEY TO HIS FATHER'S RE-ELECTION AND IT'S KEY TO BATTLE DOWN THESE ACCUSATIONS, ALL OF WHICH, SO FAR, ARE UNSUBSTANTIATED, THAT HIS FATHER WAS DIRECTLY INVOLVED WITH ANY OF HIS BUSINESS DEALINGS WITH FOREIGN ASSOCIATES. >> SO, JACKIE, YOU'D THINK AFTER A SERIES OF HUMILIATING SETBACKS FOR THIS COMMITTEE, THE LATEST BEING THE ARREST OF MR. SMIRNOV WHO, AT ONE TIME, WAS A STAR WITNESS, WHO NOW THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT IS SAYING HE MADE IT ALL UP, YOU'D THINK THE COMMITTEE WOULD WALK AWAY. CHAIRMAN COMER MADE IT CLEAR, HIS SMOKE BUT NO FIRE YET INVESTIGATION, SAID, WE HEARD THINGS IN HUNTER BIDEN'S TESTIMONY THAT NEED FURTHER REVIEW, SUGGESTING, WE'RE GOING TO KEEP THIS BALL IN THE AIR WITH INSINUATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS BUT NO EVIDENCE THERE WAS WRONGDOING HERE. IS THAT THE GOAL, TO KEEP THIS ALIVE THROUGH THE ELECTION? >> THAT IS A TYPICAL COMER TACTIC, TO LOB ALLEGATIONS ACROSS CABLE NEWS AND CONSERVE TY MEDIA THAT HAVE BEEN UNYOU BEEN UNSUBSTANTIATED TIME AND TIME AGAIN. I ASSUME WE'LL CONTINUE TO SEE IT BUT TO A LESSER EXTENT. FOX NEWS HAS QUIETED ON SEVERAL FRONTS OF COVERING SOMESATIONS MAKING, AND COLLEAGUES HAVE NOT BEEN HA HAPPY WITH HIS MEDIA-CENTRIC APPROACH, SPEAKING ABOUT THINGS, AND THEN WHEN YOU LOOK AT IT FURTHER, THE EVIDENCE HAS FALLEN FLAT. FORTUNATELY FOR HIM, WE'LL BE TURNING TO THE SENATE IMPEACHMENT TRIAL, WHICH IS ANOTHER DISCUSSION IN TERMS OF WHETHER THOSE ARE SUBSTANTIATED ARTICLES OF IMPEACHMENT AGAINST MAYORKAS. IT IS CERTAINLY COUNTERPROGRAMMING TO GIVE COMER AND THE HOUSE OVERSIGHT AND JUDICIARY COMMITTEES A BIT OF CO
