It’s been less than a day since Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer announced he has a list of four critical witnesses who should testify at the Senate’s impeachment trial of President Donald Trump, and already Republicans have served up their stonewalling talking points.
Leader Schumer wants former Trump National Security Advisor John Bolton, current White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, and two White House officials tied to Mulvaney to testify.
And the Republicans – unofficially for now – have already let it be known the answer will be no.
Why?
CNN’s Manu Raju reports Republicans are saying they will not call on any of those “preferred” witnesses because they did not testify before any of the House Committees in the impeachment inquiry. The House tried to have both testify but the White House blocked those requests and the Chairmen decided it was not worthwhile to take what could have been months – possibly eight months – to go through the courts when Trump is currently attempting to use foreign actors to once again help him win the election.
Republicans are saying “there’s no need to hear from these four individuals because that was actually the House’s job,” Raju reports.
“According to the Republicans the House was actually the fact-finding body that was the one that was supposed to hear from, get testimony from the four individuals,” he adds. “It was the decision by House Democrats not to go to court to try to enforce their subpoenas to compel these people.”
Watch:
CNN’s John King inexplicably calls the Republicans’ response a “game of chess.”
In October Mulvaney infamously bragged that Trump did demand a quid pro quo with Ukraine, telling the American people to “get over it.”