Senate GOP Fears Bolton Testimony: 'The Floodgates Are Open'
Editor’s Note: I’ll be publishing analyses from Daily Kos on a regular basis over the next couple of weeks so I can stay focused on writing up local electoral contests as the opening day for California mail-in voters approaches.
My personal advice is for readers not to obsess over the minutia of the impeachment hearings; that’s part of why I’m offering up a daily summary. Until we get closer to the end, most of what happens in the Senate will be predictable. However, watch for breaking news from outside Capitol Hill… FOIA documents and more are forthcoming.
By Laura Clawson / Originally posted at Daily Kos
In a reasonable world, the bombshell report that former national security adviser John Bolton wrote that Donald Trump tied military aid to Ukraine to investigations targeting his political opponents would have immediately prompted a stream of Republican senators to say that they were voting to have witnesses testify in Trump’s impeachment trial. Well, in a reasonable world, Republican senators would already have supported the testimony of witnesses—but we don’t live in either of those worlds, and we’re still waiting to hear if even four Republicans will do the right thing.
Even anonymous Republican sources for insider D.C. publications aren’t making any bold predictions about what’s going to happen next. Axios reports, “GOP sources say the revelation could be enough to sway the four Republican senators needed for witnesses.” Could be, not will definitely. Politico Playbook wrote that “our GOP sources said they could not predict what was going to happen now with witnesses, and the Republican Conference lunch today will be key in determining the state of play.” Again, no guarantees.
Trump’s defenders have insisted again and again that the many witnesses to his pressure campaign against Ukraine didn’t count because none of them had heard directly from him that nearly $400 million in military aid was held up specifically to demand investigations into Trump’s political opponents. That’s exactly what Bolton’s book reportedly does say: that Trump told him that was the reason for the hold-up.
https://twitter.com/MollyJongFast/status/1221633051647672320?s=20
But the fact that Bolton could knock down that critical Trump defense is exactly one of the reasons Team Trump will fight having him testify. A Republican source told Axios that “there is a sense in the Senate that if one witness is allowed, the floodgates are open.” If Bolton testifies, who knows? It might be harder for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to block other witnesses and evidence: “If [Bolton] says stuff that implicates, say Mick [Mulvaney] or [Mike] Pompeo, then calls for them will intensify.”
https://twitter.com/MoveOn/status/1221815117542719490?s=20
In other words, Bolton’s revelation increases public and media pressure on Senate Republicans to vote to call witnesses at the impeachment trial. But, if anything, it increases pressure from Team Trump and Senate Republican leadership to block witnesses, because they know just how devastating this could be.
Senate Republicans face a very simple question: continue to cover up, or do the rock-bottom minimum needed for a fair impeachment trial?
https://twitter.com/tribelaw/status/1221790971991592961?s=20
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