WASHINGTON — It's a momentous week on Capitol Hill as the Senate trial leads up to a critical vote on whether to call witnesses for the Senate trial.
New allegations from former National Security Adviser John Bolton accuses the president of explicitly calling to block military aid to Ukraine until Ukraine investigated Democrats and namely his political rival Vice President Joe Biden. The president is rejecting all accusations.
President Donald Trump claimed he “NEVER” said any of what Bolton is accusing of him. On Saturday, the president’s defense team said he did nothing wrong and that eventually, the president did meet with the Ukrainian leader and that eventually the aid to Ukraine was released with no investigations.
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The defense also called on another witness’ testimony, the U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland, and how Sondland said the president never explicitly said the military aid was linked to the investigation of U.S. Democrats, but Bolton’s leaked manuscript undercuts that argument.
California Senator Kamala Harris said Americans should keep watching and understanding, and if they see fit, they should call their Senators and voice their opinion about witnesses in the trial.
“All of us as Californians and Americans have so much at stake here. Remember that one of the big issues here, and this is the article one of the impeachment, is that the president put his personal interest ahead of the nation’s interest,” said Harris. “Making decisions about the use of his power that are based on what helps him and not on what helps out nation; it's a very serious issue and for that, we should all pay attention and demand justice.”
The defense team said Democrats are cherry-picking details to form a narrative that isn’t true while trying to undo the 2016 elections and interfere with the 2020 elections.
But Democrats said this impeachment directly revolves around the president interfering with this year’s elections and that on the contrary, they’re trying to protect 2020.
Democrats hope to utilize Bolton’s allegations as a way to bolster their chances to get witnesses in the Senate trial. Democrats issued a statement Sunday urging Republicans to seek testimony from Bolton and said there is no reason to wait for the published book for more information.
Harris said it’s only right to call on witnesses, especially since Bolton previously announced he would testify if he were subpoenaed in the impeachment trial.
“It is the United States Senate of being the triers of the case and doing it, paying attention to it and taking seriously the oath that we have taken to do ‘impartial justice’ and also doing it in a way that demands that it is a fair process and by that, we mean, we have to have witnesses and we have to have documents that we know exists,” said Harris. “And so I do hope that my colleagues from across the aisle agree that we need to bring people forward; we need to get to the heart of the truth of the matter so that the outcome of this is fair and just.”
Harris called the defense team’s case “illogical in many ways” because they’re alleging there’s no due process.
Harris said the due process is there for the defense team to call witnesses, but that it’s their client, the President of the United States, who is obstructing that. She said the defense team has the opportunity to call witnesses and cross-examine and said the White House is preventing all of that.
The manuscript of Bolton’s forthcoming book, which is called The Room Where It Happened was sent to the White House for review of classified information when it was leaked, according to the New York Times.
In there, Bolton says he was in the room with the president when President Trump explicitly says they should block military aid to Ukraine until Ukraine investigates his political rivals. It’s scheduled for publication mid-March.
President Trump took to Twitter Monday morning and said the only reason Bolton said that was to sell books.
President Trump additionally said witnesses shouldn’t even be a part of the Senate trial anyway.
Some GOP Senators, like Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, said Monday it’s becoming “increasingly likely” that a handful of Republican Senators will vote to hear from witnesses.