If Democrats manage to convince the GOP-led Senate to allow their desired witnesses to testify in President Donald Trump’s trial, one Missouri Republican plans to immediately file subpoena requests for his desired witnesses to also testify.
And included in the list of his desired witnesses are, among others, former Vice President Joe Biden, the former VP’s son Hunter, House Intelligence Committee chair Adam Schiff and the partisan whistleblower whose dubious accusations of wrongdoing against the president triggered Trump’s ongoing impeachment.
“I have drafted motions to subpoena Adam Schiff, the ‘whistleblower,’ Hunter Biden, and Joe Biden to testify. If the Senate calls witnesses, I will ask for votes on all these next week,” Sen. Josh Hawley announced on Twitter this Saturday evening:
I have drafted motions to subpoena Adam Schiff, the “whistleblower,” Hunter Biden, and Joe Biden to testify. If the Senate calls witnesses, I will ask for votes on all these next week https://t.co/NW1fuyYVF4
— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) January 25, 2020
The announcement triggered howls of rage from those liberal Democrats who oppose reciprocity and believe that only the Democrats’ desired witnesses should be compelled to testify.
Leading the pack was obsessively anti-Trump liberal Hollywood actress Patricia Arquette.
“It has always been about taking down Trump’s political rival Biden by hook or by crook. We got it,” she tweeted in exasperation.
Other left-wingers followed suit:
It has always been about taking down Trumps political rival Biden by hook or by crook. We got it.
— Patricia Arquette (@PattyArquette) January 26, 2020
That’s idiotic. Good luck with that. #Idiot.
— Noodles For President! (@TheGnudz) January 26, 2020
You are a scumbag
— Danny Blanchflower (@D_Blanchflower) January 26, 2020
Because you want to make this about nothing relevant to trumps abuse of power whatsoever.
— Suzanne Lindbergh (@suzannebuzz) January 26, 2020
History will not be kind to you.
— Gary Whitta (@garywhitta) January 26, 2020
you and your family will be saddled with the shame of your hypocrisy and cowardice for the rest of all of your lives. well done.
— Thorne Identity ? (@GeoffThorne) January 26, 2020
It’s not clear what exactly about fairness and “witness reciprocity,” as defined by Sen. Ted Cruz, has provoked such blistering rage from the allegedly “equality-loving” left.
It was Cruz who pitched the idea of “witness reciprocity” earlier this month by suggesting that each side be allowed to call an equal number of witnesses to testify in the president’s trial.
But the same liberal Democrats who stacked the president’s impeachment hearings in the House against Trump’s favor by blocking Republicans from subpoenaing any witnesses seem to now believe that it would be unfair and unjust for their Republican Senate colleagues to allow both sides to subpoena witnesses …
The facts do not appear to bear out this thesis.
Take Hawley’s desire to hear Schiff testify. Throughout the impeachment proceedings, the House Intelligence Committee chair has functioned as an independent counsel equivalent in many respects to Kenneth Starr, who served as independent counsel during the impeachment proceedings against then-President Bill Clinton in the late 1990s.
And it just so happens that during those proceedings, Starr was forced to testify. Therefore, since he was compelled to testify, why can’t Schiff be as well?
Listen to his testimony below:
As for the other witnesses whom Hawley seeks to compel to testify, the partisan whistleblower is relevant not only because of the complaint he filed against the president last year but also before of reports about his “bias.”
In one report published last week, for example, journalist Paul E. Sperry of the Hoover Institution alleged that two weeks into Trump’s presidency, the whistleblower “was overheard in the White House discussing with another staffer how to remove the newly elected president from office, according to former colleagues.”
The last set of potential witnesses, the Bidens, are highly relevant because it’s their alleged corruption which inspired the president to ask Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky last summer to open an investigation into their activities in Ukraine. And it’s this very request that the whistleblower had complained about.
Of course, as the current lead House impeachment manager, Schiff has tried to deny their relevance.
“You’ve heard the further defense that Biden is corrupt, that Joe Biden is corrupt, that Hunter Biden is corrupt,” he complained while delivering his closing arguments Friday. “This is their defense … because what they hope to achieve in the Senate trial is what they couldn’t achieve through their scheme.”
“If they couldn’t get Ukraine to smear the Bidens, they want to use this trial to do it instead. So let’s call Hunter Biden. Let’s smear the Bidens. Let’s succeed in the trial of what we couldn’t do with this scheme. That’s the goal.”
But as noted by Hawley in tweets posted afterward, Schiff’s remarks weren’t facts but rather theories. Namely, theories that need to be fleshed out so that the actual truth may be ascertained. And the only way to flesh them out would be to have the Bidens testify.
Look:
The many hours of #impeachment argument yesterday revealed how central Hunter Biden is. Schiff insisted @realDonaldTrump wasn’t serious about corruption in Ukraine b/c there was no corruption involving Biden. Really? Material question. Maybe Senate should call Biden & find out
— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) January 23, 2020
WOW, House managers make extended argument that Hunter Biden’s work w/ Burisma entirely appropriate & no conflict of interest w/ Joe Biden getting rid of prosecutor that had jurisdiction over Burisma. If we call witnesses, gonna need to hear from both Bidens
— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) January 23, 2020
But again, according to liberal Democrats, allowing Republicans to flesh out the actual truth would somehow be unfair and wrong …
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