Schumer balks at GOP calling witnesses and says he wants impeachment trial focused on facts, not conspiracy theories
“I think the trial should be focused on the facts that the House presented, not on conspiracy theories that some established liar puts forward,” Schumer said just hours after publically releasing a letter he sent to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., outlining how he would like a Senate impeachment trial to proceed.
In his letter to McConnell, the New York Democrat specifically asked that four witnesses be called during the trial: Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House chief of staff; Robert Blair, a senior Mulvaney adviser; John Bolton, the former nation-security adviser; and Michael Duffey of the Office of Management and Budget.
“These are the four who have the most direct contact to the facts that are in dispute — most particularly, why was the aid to Ukraine delayed?” Schumer said. “There is no reason on God’s green earth why they shouldn’t be called and testify unless you’re afraid of what they might say.”
Schumer also responded to criticism that during the Senate impeachment trial of then-President Bill Clinton in 1999, he had adamantly opposed calling witnesses to testify before the upper chamber of Congress.
