'I would obey any subpoena': Joe Biden now says

Brianne Pfannenstiel | Des Moines Register

WASHINGTON, Ia. — The shadow of impeachment clouded Joe Biden's trip through eastern Iowa on Saturday after the former vice president confirmed he would defy a congressional subpoena if he didn't believe there was a legal rationale behind it.

Biden told the Des Moines Register's editorial board Friday he would not comply with a Senate subpoena during President Donald Trump's impeachment trial in the Senate. It confirmed a statement he made in an interview with NPR earlier in the month.

He began the day Saturday clarifying those remarks on Twitter before making appearances in several Iowa towns.

"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 tweeted. "But I am just not going to pretend that there is any legal basis for Republican subpoenas for my testimony in the impeachment trial."

But I am just not going to pretend that there is any legal basis for Republican subpoenas for my testimony in the impeachment trial. That is the point I was making yesterday and I reiterate: this impeachment is about Trump’s conduct, not mine. — Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) December 28, 2019

By Saturday evening at a town hall in Fairfield, Iowa, Biden seemed to reverse himself. He told a crowd there he would comply with a subpoena.

"Well, first of all, I would obey any subpoena that was sent to me," he said after an audience member asked him about the issue. "But the point I was making, as it relates to me, is the only rational reason … that I could possibly be called in an impeachment trial was, 'Can I shed any light on whether or not he committed the crimes he’s accused of?' And there’s no reason to believe I would have any notion of whether he committed that crime."

Biden began his public events in Tipton, Iowa, on Saturday morning, where he gave remarks to about 100 people. He reiterated his belief that the next president will need to unify the country following the "strain" of impeachment.

"There’s nothing to celebrate," he said of Trump's impeachment. "But the Constitution requires Congress to act."

He said he believes the president "basically indicted himself by acknowledging that he’s asked for help from foreign countries as well as engaging in doing everything he could to prevent Congress from doing its job."

At his event in Washington, Iowa, a woman asked Biden who he would name as a running mate "so that people know who they probably will end up having to step in if you do get the nomination and are impeached."

Biden pushed back against the premise.

"You make it sound like this is just a game that’s being played — impeaching President Trump," he said. "... The House did not impeach President Trump because he uses raw language and he denigrates people. (They've impeached) him because he’s doing two things that no president has allegedly ever done."

He said the House impeached Trump because he solicited a foreign country to interfere in a U.S. election and then obstructed Congress from investigating the allegations.

Trump was impeached, in part, for asking the president of Ukraine to investigate Biden and his son Hunter Biden, who served on the board of a gas company in that country. Some Republicans have floated the possibility of calling Biden as a witness in the Senate trial.

House Democrats have delayed the transmitting articles of impeachment to the Senate until senators come to an agreement on a Senate trial. However, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has said negotiations are at an "impasse" over negotiations on the trial's format.

“We’ll see whether or not any of that can get through or whether there will really be a trial — whether the jurors will actually have an open mind and determine whether or not any of those things happened," Biden said in Washington.

If the U.S. Senate does begin an impeachment trial in January, Biden could have an advantage over the five Democratic senators who will have to split their time between campaigning in Iowa and presiding over the trial at the U.S. Capitol.

Teri Stone, an Iowa City resident who saw Biden speak in Washington, said she appreciates the way Biden has responded to attacks from Trump and Republicans in Congress.

“There’s so much ugliness out there — especially what he’s been under. It’s ridiculous," she said.

Warren comments on Biden, subpoena

At a Saturday night campaign event in Des Moines, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren told reporters that Biden should comply with a Senate subpoena if it’s lawfully issued.

"And I assume that he will follow it," she said. "He has said that he always follows lawful orders and if there is a lawfully issued order for his subpoena, then he should follow it."

The senator from Massachusetts said the issue instead should be about forcing those already facing a subpoena to comply, including the president’s former White House counsel and the president’s acting chief of staff.

“Right now, we should be focusing on the subpoenas that have already been issued for Don McGahn and for Mick Mulvaney, who have first-hand knowledge of what the president did," she said. "That’s where the testimony should come from in this impeachment trial. But that’s the part that Mitch McConnell and the president just don’t want to put out there in the public, and that’s wrong."

Warren was one of the first Democrat presidential candidates to call for Trump’s impeachment in April, after she said she read the entire Mueller report.

"Donald Trump is being impeached for abuse of power and that’s where our focus should be," she said Saturday. "Shame on him for trying to switch this over to something else."

Issues top of mind for caucusgoers

Across all of his events, Biden fielded inquires focused on access to quality and affordable child care, winning over independent voters, combating climate change and expanding access to health care. In Washington, one man asked Biden whether he would appoint President Barack Obama to the U.S. Supreme Court. "If he'd take it, yes!" Biden quipped.

"It’s becoming clearer and clearer to me that the most important thing we can do is nominate somebody who’s going to win," said Larry Hodgden, chairman of the Cedar County Democrats who introduced Biden in Tipton. "And (Biden) can attract independents, moderate Republicans and the Democrats."

Hodgden previously endorsed U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris, who has since ended her campaign. He said he would likely endorse someone new in the next few weeks and is considering Biden, in part because he believes he can win.

The events were Biden's last in Iowa for the remainder of 2019. He's scheduled to return for a four-day swing beginning Jan. 2.

Des Moines Register reporter Kim Norvell contributed to this report.

Brianne Pfannenstiel is the chief politics reporter for the Register. Reach her at bpfann@dmreg.com or 515-284-8244. Follow her on Twitter at @brianneDMR.