If the Senate does not call on former national security advisor John Bolton to testify following a bombshell report that President Donald Trump had told him he wanted to withhold aid to Ukraine, it will show that the chamber's Republicans are "rigging" the ongoing impeachment trial, Sen. Mazie Hirono said Monday.
"I can only hope that the Republicans, who as far as I'm concerned, particularly with this bombshell information about what Bolton has to say, they are behind the eight ball, and one hopes that they will step up and face up to some facts," the Hawaii Democrat said on CNN's "New Day."
Senate Republicans and the White House counsel, which resumed its arguments before the Senate on Monday, have been saying there are no direct witnesses to tie claims that Trump ordered aid withheld from Ukraine unless it conducted investigations into Joe and Hunter Biden, said Hirono, but "here is John Bolton saying that is exactly what was going on."
Trump early Monday denied he told Bolton that aid to Ukraine was tied into any investigations of Democrats, including the Bidens.
Trump's comments came after The New York Times reported that Bolton's book has several dozen pages about the Ukraine matter, including claims that Trump told him last August that the $391 million in military assistance would remain on hold until Ukraine agreed to investigate the Bidens.
In the wake of the story, Hirono said, "it will tell me that the Republicans are going right along with the president and [Senate Majority Leader] Mitch McConnell in rigging this trial" if Bolton is not called to testify.
"It should be a fair trial, and the people in our country know that they want to hear from witnesses and documents, all of which the president has completely stonewalled," she said.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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