MAGA lawmaker Nancy Mace reveals she snubbed Hunter Biden’s olive branch

South Carolina congresswoman Nancy Mace has claimed that she dodged “smooth talker” Hunter Biden’s efforts to extend an olive branch – when he rose above her public insults and offered to shake her hand.

Hunter Biden gave testimony behind closed doors on Wednesday as part of a Republican impeachment probe into his father President Joe Biden. House Republicans have been trying – and so far failing – to find evidence of corruption, including that the president was involved in his son’s business dealings.

In his opening statement, he told lawmakers that “I did not involve my father in my business” and told House Republicans that they had “built your entire partisan house of cards on lies”.

Last month, Ms Mace, who was in attendance at Wednesday’s hearing, slammed Hunter Biden, calling him the “epitome of white privilege” when he refused to appear for the first scheduled closed-door hearing and then showed up unannounced at a House Oversight Committee hearing seeking to hold him in contempt of Congress.

“My first question is who bribed Hunter Biden to be here today? That’s my first question. Second question, you are the epitome of white privilege. Coming into the Oversight Committee, spitting in our face, ignoring a Congressional subpoena to be deposed. What are you afraid of? You have no balls to come up here,” she said at the time.

However, despite her insults, Hunter Biden reportedly went over to Ms Mace on Wednesday to talk to her face-to-face and offer to shake her hand.

Appearing on Fox News’Jesse Watters Primetime later that day, Ms Mace gave the lowdown of her version of events.

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“Interestingly, Hunter Biden, one of the first things he did after the first hour of the hearing is that he made a B-line in my direction to shake my hand and tell me face-to-face that he is not the evil man I portray him to be,” she claimed.

This was met with an “Oooooh” by Mr Watters.

“So my response, Jesse, was that: no, he was being defiant and being dishonest in his testimony, and I told him that his testimony directly contradicted the testimony of other witnesses that we’ve had come through there, including business partners and good friends of his,” she claimed.

Mr Watters, taken aback by this bizarre exchange, delved deeper into Hunter Biden’s actions. “He tried to schmooze you?” he asked

“I guess he thinks he’s a smooth talker,” Ms Mace responded. “He was way overconfident today; he and Abbe Lowell [Hunter Biden’s attorney] were patting each other on the back.”

Yet Mr Watters, who was so fixated on the exchange between the congresswoman and Hunter Biden, doubled down on his investigation into the exchange and asked Ms Mace what he exactly did when he approached her.

“He stuck his hand right out and shook my hand and looked me in the eye to tell me he was not evil, and my response was that he was defiant and dishonest today throughout his testimony,” she said.

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“No one thinks he’s evil, we just think he’s crooked, and so is his father,” Mr Watters added.

“When he wanted to answer the question, he made it sound like he was the king of Georgetown, the smartest guy in the room, but when he did not want to answer the question, he blamed it on drugs and his addiction,” Ms Mace claimed of the president’s son during the hearing.

The impeachment probe has focused on Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings and trying to connect his father to business meetings with his son’s business associates.

However, several witnesses have so far testified that the president wasn’t involved in any of his family’s business dealings.

Hunter Biden’s attorney, Mr Lowell, spoke to the press on Wednesday afternoon and said: “After seven hours of questions, the Republican majority ends the day where they started. They have produced no evidence that would do anything to support the notion that there was any financial transactions that involved Hunter with his father – period.”

“It seems to me that the Republican members wanted to spend more time speaking about my client’s addiction than they could ask any question that had anything to do with what they call their impeachment inquiry,” he added.

The chair of the House Oversight Committee, Rep James Comer, said after the inquiry: “There are also some contradictory statements that I think need further review, so this impeachment inquiry will now go to the next phase, which will be a public hearing.”

On Mr Watters’ show, the host signed off by congratulating Ms Mace, saying she “did not get buttered up by Hunter, good job”. “Not at all,” she replied.