we've been begin with this fox news alert. we are tracking three breaking news stories tonight. it's official. a formal impeachment inquiry into president biden has been approved by the u.s. house of representatives. we are now one step closer to accountability. pretty soon biden and could be the fourth president in american history impeached by the house. meanwhile good news for donald trump. this afternoon a federal judge paused the doj policy witchhunt against trump pending a decision on the president's immunity claims. democrats hope for a trial. the day before super tuesday. that hope is in real jeopardy. we have a full report tonight straight ahead. first, a sob story on capitol hill today. hunter biden wants you to know that he is a poor, helpless victim of what is a new, vast, right-wing conspiracy and neither he nor his father should ever be held accountable pretty much for anything. today hunter was legally required to attend what is a closed-door deposition inside the capitol complex as part of the ongoing corruption investigation against his father. instead, hunter stood outside, kind of cowardly, refusing to go in, defying a house subpoena and delivering one of the most pathetic unhinged rants of all time. this is worthy of your time. take a look. for six years maga republicans including members of the house committees who are in a closed-door session right now, have impugned my character, invaded my privacy, attacked my wife, my children, my family and my friends. for six years, i have been the target of the unrelenting trump attack machine shouting, where's hunter? james comer, jim jordan, jason smith and their colleagues have distorted the facts. there is no fairness or decency and what these republicans are doing. they have lied, over and over, about every aspect of my personal and professional life. >> let us be very clear tonight. hunter is no martyr. he is facing felony charges over a major multimillion dollar tax evasion scheme. he is facing more felony charges for gun crimes. he abandoned his own infant child until an arkansas court forced hunter to take a paternity test. according to the doj, he spent millions of dollars on drugs and prostitutes and close and sports cars instead of paying his taxes or supporting his family. so let's be clear. the way hunter made millions of dollars is highly unusual to say the least. i'm sure a lot of you out there would love to make millions and millions of dollars in some field of endeavor in which you have no experience at all. based on testimony about, quote, "the biden brands, it appearss that hunter was selling access and influence to his father, then vice president joe biden. this is a very key component of the gop's impeachment probe. by the way, a deposition that is a standard legal tool used during these investigations. as a matter of fact donald trump jr. complied with five congressional subpoenas during the democrats various witchhunts. now trump's adult children, son-in-law, faced hours upon hours of closed-door sessions with members of congress. they showed up. meanwhile two former senior trump staffers, steve bannon, peter navarro, both defied congressional subpoenas. they were quickly prosecuted by the doj. command and was sentenced to four months in prison. navarro has yet to be sentenced. he could face up to two years behind bars. now will merrick garland, joe biden's attorney general, prosecute hunter biden or will be see yet another blatant example of america's corrupt two-tiered system of justice? remember in 2021 president biden demanded criminal prosecutions for those that defy congressional subpoenas. he actually said it. let's listen in. >> what is your message to people who defied congressional subpoenas on the january 6 committee? >> i hope that this committee goes after them and hold them accountable. >> should they be prosecuted? >> yes. >> he does think they should be prosecuted. those joe biden stand standby those remarks? those those remarks apply to his son or has something change? if hunter and joe had done nothing wrong why didn't hunter show up and clear the air earlier today? chairman comer already granted hunter's request for a public hearing after the closed-door deposition. as is standard operating procedure. again, don jr. was subpoenaed five separate times. he always complied. hunter biden is somehow above the law? that's just the latest chapter of the biden family's unusual behavior. in fact we now have a new wrinkle in what we are calling the evolution of a live. the lie that started with, i never once talked to my son, my brother or anybody for that matter about their foreign business deals. then it changed. then it changed again. and it changed again. and then it changed again today. take a look. >> mr. vice president, how may times have you spoken to your son about his overseas business dealings? >> i have never spoken to my son about overseas business dealings. >> i am curious if you stand behind the comment that he's never been involved and never even spoken to his son about it? >> i have been asked this question a million times. the answer will not change. the answer remains the same spec the president was never in business with his son. >> hunter may have put his father on the phone with any number of different people and they never wants spoke about any business dealings. it was all casual conversation, niceties, the weather. >> why have you interacted with so many of your son's foreign business associates? >> i will not comment. i did not. that's a bunch of lies. >> you didn't interact with them? >> i did not. they are lies. >> my father was not financially involved in my business. not as a practicing lawyer, not as a board member of burisma, not in my partnership with the chinese private businessmen, not in my investments at home nor are broad and certainly not as an artist. >> the question is, what qualified hunter to make all these millions of dollars and nine other biden family members all these millions of dollars and they had no experience? we have no idea whatsoever whether any services were ever rendered. unless the one term we went from joe biden saying he never once talked business with hunter, his brother or anybody for that matter to a different story denying that joe biden was ever in business with hunter, which evolved into claims that joe biden met with hunter's partners and talk to them on the phone. but they talked about niceties. they talked about the weather, but they never discussed business. and now hunter is saying that his father was not, quote, "financially involved. that's a whole different argument. in other words, hunter is leaving open the possibility that his father, then vice president, participated in the family business or syndicate if you prefer. but never got a direct payment. instead according to reported texts and e-mails hunter complained bitterly that the big guy had been using his wells fargo account to pay pop's bills for 11 years. hunter also implicated his father complaining that he was forced to give up half of his income to pops, meaning joe. at the same time joe biden was frequently interacting with his son's business partners through pseudonyms and e-mails. this is an undisputed fact. we have pictures, dinners at café milano. with oligarchs like the former first lady of moscow, one of the foreign business partners of hunter biden. we have golf outings, eyewitness accounts. we have hunter's business partner devon archer testifying that he witnessed joe biden participate in phone calls with hunter's foreign business associates at least 20 times. that would include one critical call with executives at burisma holdings, the ukrainian gas and oil giant. remember, hunter was getting paid millions of dollars to merely sit on a board of that corrupt ukrainian oil and gas giant despite no experience at all based on his own words in an interview on gma . no experience at all and you can make millions of dollars. this is a great country. then we have a timeline on this. on december 4th, 2015 during a meeting in dubai, hunter and his bosses at burisma were in dubai. they demanded that hunter called d.c. to address, quote, "pressure that the company was facing. this according to testimony from devon archer. , quote, "they requested hunter help them with some of that pressure. government pressure from the ukrainian government investigation. five days later while traveling to ukraine to deliver on the new obama administration policy from october 2015. in other words, delivered the billion dollars in lone guarantees. then vice president joe biden leverage that billion dollars, your tax dollars, to force ukraine's top prosecutor out of office. and gave them six hours to do it. and they fired the guy. the very same prosecutor investigating burisma and hunter biden for corruption. that move but melisma martine. hunter, guess what? as a result of that action taken by his vice president father, he continued to get paid. he continued to get rich. again, with no experience. in america you are innocent until proven guilty. but anyone who tells you there is no evidence of wrongdoing, no need for an investigation, is an abject liar. here with mo is james comer with us. the house ways and means committee chairman jason smith and house judiciary committee chairman jim jordan. congressman comer, i start with you tonight. your reaction to today's events earlier today with jim jordanout that hunter has defied a lawful subpoena and you will now initiate contempt of congress proceedings and that hunter will not be pvided special treatment because his last name is biden. >> i've never seen such a display of arrogance and entitlement as i saw today when you had over a dozen members of congress in a committee room waiting for hunter biden to appear because he was lawfully subpoenaed. while we were there with staff who had spent countless hours preparing questions, substantive questions. at the same time hunter biden goes out and has a press conference and plays the victim card. he defies a congressional subpoena, says he wants to tell his story and gets in a car and drives off. i think the american people saw that was a publicity stunt that went bust. we have had a credible investigation that the american people expect. they want to know what the bidens did to receive tens of millions of dollars from enemies around the world world. we will continue to pursue the truth and we are doing it lawfully and by the constitution. today, hunter biden got into more trouble if that is even possible by defying our lawful subpoena. >> let's get your take, jim jordan. you along with congressman comer put out the statement about hunter failing to appear for the deposition and are now initiating contempt of congress proceedings. tell us what is going to happen next? >> we will do a report and market up, pass it through the committee and it will go to the full house. the big takeaways today were number one, every single republican voted to move forward with the impeachment inquiry and continue our oversht responsibility. every single one. we can't get all republicans, but a majority of the house is on record in support of the investigation that we have been doing. second is what you said in the opening line. joe biden went from no involvement to he participated in dinners and meetings and phone calls, but they were just talking about the weather. today, hunter biden said my father had no financial involvement. that qualifier is huge. no financial involvement in the business. what a change. we would love to have hunter biden under oath the way these investigations are supposed to work. the first question is who is the big guy? who is the big guy, mr. biden? the confidential source that it's joe biden. your partner said it is joe biden who is the big guy. what was on the call you made from dubai at the request of burisma to get help from d.c. when you called your father? what did you ask him to do? we know what he went and did. those are two important questions that i think the american people deserve to know about and the facts about. that's what we would ask him if we had the chance. i hope we get the chance. >> jason smith, let's talk about what you learned in the ways and means committee as it relates to pseudonym e-mails that joe biden used. i don't think he was supposed to do that as part of the records act. but he did communicate quite often with eric sherwin who is the individual at rosemont senate that was in charge of the finances. he is the person that hunter himself would always ask, what account should we use to pay dad's home repair bill in this case or that case? is that the guy? >> that's exactly right. he's known as being the architect of those 20 plus shell companies that hunter biden and the bidens used to filter through millions of dollars. what the irs whistleblowers provided to our committee last ek, sean, is it stood in agreement with what they already provided of more than 1000 pages. what those irs whistleblowers said in regards to the prosecution that hunter biden should face in the tax crimes of 2016 to 2019. what happened in california confirmed everything. what the irs whistleblowers alleged. one thing that we should be looking at, sean, is that the irs whistleblowers also stated how many leads led to president joe biden, but they were stopped by the justice department. that's what we need to be looking into. >> congressman comer, what do we know? how much money can you confirm that the biden family took in from china, romania, russia, ukraine, kazakhstan and other countries? how much money are we talking about? and you confirm that the 1023 form that we had talked so often about that accused joe biden of taking official action as vice president in exchange for a family benefit. that would be hunter's benefit. was that the burisma case? >> yeah, i can say this. we found over $24 million that flowed into those shell companies that jason smith was referencing earlier. we have no idea what the bidens did to receive the money. we know the shell companies serve no purpose. we have seen bank e-mails and suspicious activity reports from banks that said they were investment companies with no investments. companies with no known purposes. we know that the 1023 form allege that they took a bribe. this was in conjunction with the burisma. one thing that triggered the discovery of the 1023 form, sean, was the fact that the whistleblowers that turned over the 1023 form to chuck grassley, they knew about this 1023 form. because the narrative had been the burisma thing was rudy giuliani and it was fake news and russian disinformation. they never paid attention to it. when the house oversight committee started unveiling evidence where the bidens were receiving suspicious funds that were being laundered through these various bank accounts and shell companies, those whistleblowers said that's exactly what it said in the 1023 form about ukraine. that's why they came forward. they came forward because of our evidence. >> you can confirm that you have discovered over 20 shell companies, but you see no real business activity except the movement of money from one account to another? you confirm that, sir? >> yes. that's why we wanted hunter biden to have the opportunity to explain. if we are misunderstanding he can tell us exactly what the different companies did. >> you can confirm that 10 biden family members were paid including grandchildren and you can find no evidence of any services rendered at all? is that true, sir? >> that is true. >> let me ask you, jim jordan. we know joe biden has said they never got any money from china. in the gma interview hunter said pretty much the same thing. when we talk about the whatsapp message call and he says i am sitting here with my father. we don't know why he didn't fulfill your commitment between everybody that he knows and my ability to hold a grudge, you will regret not fulfilling that commitment. my father and i are sitting here waiting for you to call. is it true, jim jordan, that in fact $5 million was sent to one of those companies, if you will, within a number of days thereafter? was that another example of more money coming from an oil conglomerate, this one in china? >> the energy company in china sends $5 million after that phone call. if i remember the whatsapp message it was between me and the guy sitting beside me. who was the guy sitting beside you? who are you referring to? it seems obvious but we would ask that question. we know what the business was. it was access to the brand. devon archer told us in july the brand is joe biden. it was access to joe biden because he has influence. everyone with common sense and see what was going on here. the dinners and the phone calls and the meetings with hunter biden's business partners and more importantly the people he is doing business with like all lena, the wealthiest woman and all of russia. anyone can see what is going on here. that's why we had every single republican vote today to move further and farther with our investigation to get these people in a timely message and fashion. >> yes or no, exit question for all of you? congressman smith, i will start with you. is this now an investigation about joe biden being involved in what would be a bribery scandal, a money laundering scandal and an influence peddling scandal? >> this is always been an investigation in regards to joe biden. the irs whistleblowers when they came forward highlighted it. >> is it about those three issues? bribery, influence peddling and money laundering? >> it could be a multitude of numerous items. we are continuing to follow the facts. >> james comer, is that with this is about, those three issues? >> yes, sir. >> jim jordan? >> it's the standard in the constitution. typically with impeachment, articles of impeachment it's been bribery, abuse of power, obstruction of justice. those are the things we are looking at. we want to get the facts and we will make a determination. >> this will get interesting in the days, weeks and months ahead. thank you all for being on. when we come back as biden about to cave on republicans border demands? we will check in with west virginia senator joe manchin. we will talk to him about the no labels party. could it be a factor and 2024? straight ahead. but with my moderate-to-severe eczema, it hasn't been easy. now, i'm staying ahead of it. dupixent helps heal your skin from within. so, you can clearer skin and noticeably less itch serious allergic reactions can occur, that can be severe. tell your doctor about new or worsening eye problems, such as eye pain or vision changes, including blurred vision, joint aches and pains, or a parasitic infection. don't change or stop asthma medicines without talking to your doctor. ask your doctor about dupixent joe biden is desperate to send more of your money to ukraine. we sent nearly $80 billion. he is apparently willing to trade republicans almost anything for it including even trump era immigration policies. biden has now reportedly considered bringing back title 42 or a program like that that would allow border patrol to expel illegals on the spot naturally democrats are not happy calling the idea of a nonstarter, shameful, cruel and irresponsible. here with reaction is the democratic senator from west virginia, joe manchin. senator, we've had over 8 million illegal immigrants come in this country under joe biden. hundreds from iran, hundreds from syria, thousands from egypt, thousands from afghanistan. 12,000 from russia and over 20,000 from china. i am 100% certain that we probably have, because the borders have been wide open, terror cells now in this country. do you agree with me? >> i am as concerned as scared as you are, sean. we have been saying this all along. our borders are a mess. to say that it's not and for any d