Trump: impeachment witnesses would be a national security risk
(SOUNDBITE) (English) REPORTER, ASKING:
“Mr. President, do you want to hear from witnesses in the impeachment trial? Your team has been a little inconsistent on this--"
(SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. PRESIDENT, DONALD TRUMP, SAYING:
“Well, I'll tell you the way I look at it, it's a total hoax. It's a disgrace.”
Speaking at a news conference at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, President Donald Trump weighed in on whether the Senate should allow witnesses to testify in his impeachment trial.
Hours after Senate Republicans rejected Democratic efforts to obtain evidence and ensure witnesses are heard, Trump claimed he would like to have current and former officials, like his former national security adviser John Bolton, testify. Though he said that could pose a national security risk.
(SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. PRESIDENT, DONALD TRUMP, SAYING:
"I would rather go the long way, I would rather interview (national security adviser John) Bolton. I would rather interview a lot of people. The problem with John is that it's a national security problem. You know, you can't have someone who is at national security and, if you think about it John, he knows some of my thoughts, he knows what I think about leaders. What happens if he reveals what I think about a certain leader and it's not very positive and then I have to deal on behalf of the country? It's going to be very hard, it's going to make the job very hard. He knows other things and I don't know if we left on the best of terms, I would say probably not. So you don't like people testifying when they didn't leave on good terms, and that was due to me not due to him. And so we will see what happens, but when you have a national security, you could call it presidential prerogative, you could just call it, the way I look at it, I call it national security for national security reasons. Executive privilege they say."
Trump also said he would want to have his acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney testify, as well as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry.
The context here is the White House blocked these witnesses from cooperating and refused to hand over any documents to House investigators in their impeachment inquiry.
Republican senators have not ruled out the possibility of further testimony and evidence at some point after opening arguments and 16 hours of senators' questions, but they sided with Trump's lawyers on Tuesday in kicking that issue down the road....A potentially good sign for the White House.
