Why GOP witness wish list shows they can't defend Trump
By Jennifer Rubin / The Washington Post
House Republicans acknowledged they have no witnesses and no documents to dispute the main facts concerning President Trumps impeachable conduct: a demand from Ukraine for dirt on a political rival; withholding of aid vital to Ukraines defense against Russia; concealing evidence of the scheme by moving a transcript to a secret server; and threatening the tipster who alerted Congress to gross malfeasance. They admitted all that? Well, in a manner of speaking they did.
The Washington Post reports:
House Republicans sent Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-California, a list of witnesses they want to testify in the impeachment inquiry, including former vice president Joe Bidens son Hunter Biden and the anonymous whistleblower who filed the initial complaint against President Trump.
Schiff is likely to reject many, if not all, of the witnesses from the Republicans wish list.
Hunter Biden lacks any direct knowledge of anything that occurred in the Trump White House, and hence he cannot rebut evidence of Trumps demand that Ukraine interfere with our election. By Republicans own admission, the whistleblower lacks first-hand knowledge of events. (Witnesses who testified out of public view have corroborated the crux of the case against Trump that he pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate his political rivals so the Democrats see no need for the whistleblower, who heard the story secondhand, to testify. Three career State Department officials are returning next week for the public hearings.)
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