McConnell Gaining Confidence in Ability to Block Witnesses
TTN
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has changed his tune on the likelihood the Senate GOP can block witnesses from testifying in the impeachment trial.
According to Town Hall:
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is “increasingly confident” that the GOP will have enough votes to block the Democrats from bringing witnesses to the floor in President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial “by Friday,” despite efforts on the part of moderate Republican Senators, including Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) to whip votes in support of calling former national security advior John Bolton to the witness stand.
The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday night that McConnell is desperately whipping his caucus, looking for the votes needed to block efforts at forcing witness testimony, adding that McConnell’s vote count “wasn’t where it needed to be.” A White House source told the Journal, though, that McConnell and administration allies in Senate Republican leadership were “still in the game.”
A vote on whether to allow witness testimony is currently scheduled for Friday.
In recent days, several Republicans have expressed a desire to hear from, at least, Bolton, whose new book, “The Room Where It Happened” apparently includes new information linking Trump’s denial of foreign aid to Ukraine with his desire to see Ukrainian officials dig up dirt on former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter. But those claims are as yet unverified, and White House lawyers, in their closing arguments in the Senate yesterday, cast doubt on Bolton’s credibility as a witness — and on whether such a claim even rises to the level of an impeachable offense.
The argument being made by McConnell and other leaders is that witness testimony, no matter how relevant, will do little to affect the outcome of the Senate impeachment trial.
https://trumptrainnews.com/articles/mcconnell-gaining-confidence-in-ability-to-block-witnesses