It was a bizarre spectacle, to say the least.

There was the normally reticent Hunter Biden on Capitol Hill yesterday morning railing against “MAGA Republicans” and defying a subpoena to appear before the House Oversight Committee for a private deposition. Instead, with high-priced DC lawyer Abbe Lowell at his side, he was demanding a public hearing and claiming that the old man was not financially involved in his business.

Once again, then, Team Biden has moved the influence-peddling goalposts. For the longest time, it was Joe’s dubious claim that he had “never spoken to [his] son about his overseas business dealings.” Then, when that lie became increasingly untenable, it took the form of what White House spokesman Ian Sams artfully said in late June: “As we have said many times before, the President was not in business with his son.” And now, we have Hunter saying the following: “Let me state as clearly as I can: 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 a Chinese private businessman, not in my investments at home nor abroad and certainly not as an artist.”

So now the claim is that his dad wasn’t financially involved in Hunter’s influence-peddling racket — a word, by the way, that The New York Times left out of its quote. But how could he not have been? What kind of influence could Hunter have possibly peddled if not for his dad’s status as Barack Obama’s vice president? Are we to believe that the Big Guy’s cut wasn’t really the Big Guy’s cut?

“Republicans do not want an open process where Americans can see their tactics,” said tough guy Hunter. “What are they afraid of? I’m here. I’m ready.”

He was “there” alright, but he wasn’t “ready,” as he quickly skedaddled after reading his prepared remarks, refusing even to take any questions from the assembled media.

We suppose this qualifies as acceptable behavior for a Biden, but only because they’ve set the bar so low. Setting aside the hookers and the blow and the money-grubbing and the narcissistic nude selfies and the schtupping of his deceased brother’s wife, Hunter recently took to a podcast to blast his GOP critics as “motherf***ers” who are “trying to destroy a presidency” and “trying to kill me.” This is what a shrink might call projection.

On the other hand, it might be that he was merely trying to stay a step ahead of the law. After all, he’d just defied a congressional subpoena. And his dad is on record saying those who defy subpoenas should be held in contempt. “Subpoenaed witnesses have got to show up,” said then-Senator Joe Biden in a 2007 press release. Recall, too, that Peter Navarro, a senior adviser to Donald Trump, was arrested and shackled at the airport in Nashville for having defied a subpoena from the rigged January 6 Committee. Where are the handcuffs for Hunter?

At the very least, where’s the contempt citation? House Republicans are working on it. “Hunter Biden today defied lawful subpoenas and we will now initiate contempt of Congress proceedings,” said House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer. “We will not provide special treatment because his last name is Biden.”

Yes, Hunter was there on Capitol Hill, but he wasn’t where he was supposed to be. And thus the contempt proceedings. Said legal analyst and former federal prosecutor Andy McCarthy on Fox News this morning: “Where he was supposed to be by law yesterday was in a deposition, where he would’ve had to face actual hostile questioning under oath. So to bray that you’re ‘here’ when you’re not willing to answer the questions really doesn’t advance the ball much in my mind.”

McCarthy doesn’t think Hunter ought to be the target. “Joe Biden is the business,” he said. “And Hunter may have been the front man, but it’s a mistake to tee this up as, ‘It’s Hunter’s business, and we have to trace the threads from Hunter to Joe.’ Hunter couldn’t have sustained this business on his own.”

All of this somewhat overshadowed another bit of news from Capitol Hill yesterday: that of a party-line vote to move forward with an impeachment inquiry against Hunter Biden’s dad. As Fox News reports: “The House voted to formalize its impeachment inquiry into President Biden on Wednesday, taking a critical step that GOP leaders have argued is necessary to force the White House into complying with their investigation. The measure passed 221 to 212, with every Republican voting in favor of it and all present Democrats voting against. Light cheering could be heard on the GOP side of the chamber after the measure passed, with pin drop silence on the Democratic side.”

We’re not surprised that every Democrat voted against the inquiry, but the show of unanimity from the Republican caucus is noteworthy. Perhaps those congressmen who were on the fence — those GOP House members from swing districts and pro-Biden districts — were put off by Hunter Biden’s spectacle. Perhaps they felt emboldened to move forward given the act of defiance they’d seen earlier in the day.

“There is no fairness or decency in what these Republicans are doing,” whined Hunter Biden yesterday. “They explain naked photos of me during an Oversight hearing.” Strangely, though, Hunter neglected to mention that he’s now under multiple indictments from the Biden Justice Department.

Here, we’re reminded of an old legal expression that Hunter and his legal team seem to be employing: When you have the facts, you pound the facts. When you have the law, you pound the law. And when you have neither, you pound the table.