Mitch McConnell made an announcement this week. The Senate’s trial of President Trump will last no more than two weeks, and include no witnesses. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer countered with a different proposal. The Democrats want to call four witnesses, and Republicans should call some too.
Who does Schumer want to appear before the Senate? Four witnesses who did not speak to the House Intelligence Committee, because the President silenced them. They all have direct knowledge, first-hand knowledge, of what the President actually intended in Ukraine.
Democratic Proposal
The first, White House “Acting” Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, has already made clear public statements about what the President did. In a White House a press conference, he declared that the President asked for a “quid pro quo”. He said that they demand those in foreign policy all the time, and we should “get over it”. Mulvaney was central to the scheme to pressure Ukraine. He, along with Rudy Giuliani, were the key communicators for the President. He has a lot to add to the narrative of the Ukraine saga.
The second, Mulvaney’s advisor Robert Blair, was also privy to the “behind the scenes” activity. Michael Duffy, a senior official at the Office of Management and Budget, is third. He was part the actual “hold” was placed on Ukrainian aid.
But the fourth witness Schumer demands is the most important. The Minority Leader is calling for former National Security Advisor John Bolton to testify to the Senate. This is the same John Bolton who called the Giuliani strategy a “drug deal”, and ordered his aide to immediately report to the National Security Council attorneys when the “deal” came up in a meeting.
Bolton
John Bolton, is the icon of Republican “neo-cons”. He was brought into the White House to bring national security policy “under control”. He is third to hold the title as the President’s chief advisor after General Flynn and General McMasters. Bolton is the Advisor who did everything he could to keep the President from making the phone call to the Ukrainian President. He resigned or was fired just as the Ukraine scandal was about to break.
John Bolton, probably more than anyone else, knows what the President did, and what he intended.
Why won’t Leader McConnell allow these witnesses to come before the Senate? There’s an obvious answer: what they say damages the President’s case. But McConnell has a problem as well. While he doesn’t want testimony, he also doesn’t want the Senate Republicans to be even more vulnerable to the charge of cover-up then they already are. The political equation is simple: are witnesses or charges of cover-up, a bigger electoral liability in the fall? McConnell isn’t particularly worried about “justice”, the Constitution, or even the President. He’s worried about maintaining a Republican majority in the US Senate in 2021.
McConnell has one other worry though: Bolton is writing a book.
The Book
McConnell’s nightmare scenario is that after a perfunctory Senate hearing, followed by a predetermined party-line vote to absolve the President, the book comes out. What if Bolton says that the President committed all of those Constitutional crimes ? McConnell’s afraid to campaign in the fall with the specter of a Senate cover-up, and Democrats beating Republicans over the head with Bolton’s tome of Trumpian guilt.
On a more personal note, he’s afraid to go back to Kentucky with his 34% approval rating against 52% disapproval. The Bolton book might be one more nail in his personal Senatorial coffin (Morning Consult).
Why isn’t Bolton speaking out? Every mention of his book, including in this essay, is exactly what he wants to promote sales. Bolton can write the book, make his profits, and still claim that he didn’t try to “oust” a Republican President. Bolton isn’t running for office or worried about the Trumpian base of supporters. His concern is the “big money” Republican donors, those who have supported his political PAC’s in the past.
Bolton doesn’t want to seem like a “traitor” to them. So, in this Constitutional crisis, Bolton is remaining silent. He’s has the first-hand “answer” to all of the charges asked in Article I of the Impeachment of Donald Trump.
And he will tell the story in his book – you just have to buy it.
