Alas, not a good look.

I mean, it should go something like this-

Hunter Biden

      Q: Do you have any particular qualification to sit on the Board of a Gas Company?
      A: No. Not at all.
      Q: Did your position have any duties?
      A: Nope. I was supposed to show up at meetings but it was kind of optional.
      Q: Why do you think you got this job?
      A: Because I’m the son of a former Senator and Vice President of the United States.
      Q: Did you know Burisma was under investigation?
      A: I don’t know. Someone might have told me something but I wasn’t actually paying that much attention.

And murmurs are heard throughout the Chamber. How scandalous!

Joe Biden

      Q: Did you deliver a demand to Ukraine that they fire Viktor Shokin?
      A: Absolutely. It was the official policy of the United States Government in consultation with Congress and our NATO allies.
      Q: Did you know Shokin was investigating Burisma?
      A: Well, it’s what he wasn’t investigating that was the problem and no, not particularly. It might be in some report I looked at but I looked at a lot of reports about a lot of things. I was merely the messenger of others, I didn’t set this policy.

And where do you go from there? So what.

I admit it’s not pleasant to have to sit around while Republicans pound the table and yell at you, and were I Hunter attempting some kind of slick Millenial move I’d ostentatiously plug in my iPods and stare at my phone. Joe should have a professional strength filter after all those years of Beltway Babblefarck and he’s senile and been a gaffe factory his whole life so a hazy memory is totally plausible. Attentive readers remember Joe is my least favorite candidate so I expect the Centrists and Institutional Democrats that support him would characterize it more charitably. I don’t think it would change his standing as a candidate at all.

But my point is it’s as big a nothing burger as Benghazi, so why not? If you’re lucky you get hours and hours of free media looking like a champion of democracy. This makes you look like a weasel with something to hide.

The original interview is paywall protected, but there’s a link in this summary.

Biden says he would not comply with a Senate subpoena in the impeachment trial of President Trump
by Nick Coltrain, Des Moines Register
Dec. 28, 2019

Biden said in early December he wouldn’t comply with a subpoena by the Senate, and confirmed that statement Friday in an interview with the Des Moines Register’s editorial board. He has not been subpoenaed, but Trump’s allies have floated the idea.

Testifying before the Senate on the matter would take attention away from Trump and the allegations against him, Biden said. Not even “that thug” Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal attorney and former New York City mayor, has accused Biden of doing anything but his job, the former vice president said. Biden also said any attempt to subpoena him would be on “specious” grounds, and he predicted it wouldn’t come to that.

Biden said even if he volunteered to testify in an attempt to clear the air, it would create a media narrative that would let Trump off the hook.

“What are you going to cover?” Biden said to Register Executive Editor Carol Hunter in response to a question. “You guys are going to cover for three weeks anything that I said. And (Trump’s) going to get away. You guys buy into it all the time. Not a joke … Think what it’s about. It’s all about what he does all the time, his entire career. Take the focus off. This guy violated the Constitution. He said it in the driveway of the White House. He acknowledged he asked for help.”