The question is upon us should the President push for a speedy end to the Impeachment trial? The Senate majority leader sounds increasingly confident they have the votes. They feel the blockage of witnesses is achievable.
The move will bring President Trump’s impeachment trial to an end. Possibly the end could come as soon as Friday. But should they do so?
The House case has collapsed
There are multiple rationales for not stringing out the House’s collapsed case. There is ample reason for refusing fresh testimony. Republicans have no worries about hearing from John Bolton. A cascade of other witnesses would follow. That will tie up the Senate indefinitely. President Trump’s acquittal is not in doubt.
On Wednesday, the Senate began a two-day Q&A session with the counsel on both sides. Alan Dershowitz offered a strikingly broad defense. He argues a president cannot be removed from office for actions to improve re-election prospects if he believes his re-election is in the national interest.
The requests for Bolton testimony are losing credibility
There is a string of resurfaced video clips of former national security adviser John Bolton. They are being used to highlight what some describe as serious credibility questions. The questions are being raised by both Democrats and Republicans.
Trump is linked to an interview of Bolton in August 2019 where he discusses Ukraine policy. In the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty interview clip, Bolton made no mention of any illicit quid pro quo, and acknowledged, as Republicans have claimed, that combating “corruption” in Ukraine was a “high priority” for the Trump administration.
“This is someone who’s likely to exaggerate the dangerous impulses of the president toward belligerence, his proclivity to act without thinking, and his love of conspiracy theories,” Schiff told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow on March 22, 2018.
And more, and more
“And I’ll, you know, just add one data point to what you were talking about earlier, John Bolton once suggested on Fox News that the Russian hack of the DNC [Democratic National Committee] was a false flag operation that had been conducted by the Obama administration,” he said. “So, you add that kind of thinking to [former U.S. attorney] Joe diGenova and you have another big dose of unreality in the White House.”
Bolton himself had admitted in the past that he would be more than willing to lie if he felt it was in the nation’s best interest. “If I had to say something I knew was false to protect American national security, I would do it,” Bolton said in an interview with Fox Business in 2010.
Increasingly it is looking like there will be no witnesses. That is unfortunate as it would provide an excellent display of how to play this game and who the players are. There would be ample opportunity to sort out who did what in the Ukraine. We need to know where the aid money went. We might find out why Ukraine gave more money to the Clinton Foundation than Russia.
Conclusion
Was there a stream of money to illicit uses through Ukraine? What did the State Department know? What did they do? Who had involvement? And as a side benefit the Senators would all have to stay in DC and listen. The legislative branch could do nothing else. At least it would limit the harm out government is doing to the country. If they would only continue the game until July… The President will push for a speedy end to the Impeachment trial but it would be way more fun to string this out and likely more beneficial to the reelection.