After Republican Utah Sen. Mitt Romney reiterated his desire to hear testimony from former National Security Adviser John Bolton on Monday morning, his office would not say whether Romney also supports calls to bring in Hunter Biden, Joe Biden, Adam Schiff, or the so-called whistleblower to testify before the Senate.
“Senator Romney has said all along that John Bolton may have relevant information and that he wants to hear from him. He will make a decision regarding witnesses after listening to the White House’s defense,” said Arielle Mueller, press secretary for Romney.
Democrats have advocated for Bolton and some other select witnesses who did not testify during the House impeachment inquiry to testify in the Senate impeachment hearings, but have not called to hear from witnesses involved in the alleged corruption between Hunter Biden and Ukrainian gas company Burisma during his father Joe Biden’s vice presidency, nor those involved in filing or coordinating the initial whistleblower complaint.
Democrats’ demands heightened Sunday after a New York Times report, based on a leaked manuscript of Bolton’s forthcoming tell-all book, made new allegations regarding Trump’s withholding of Ukrainian aid. Romney said, based “on the story that came out yesterday,” it is “very likely” other Republican senators would join him in seeking Bolton’s testimony during this week’s impeachment hearings.
Sen. Kelly Loeffler, the recently appointed Republican senator from Georgia, criticized Romney for caving to the Democrats’ demands to hear from anti-Trump witnesses.
After 2 weeks, it’s clear that Democrats have no case for impeachment. Sadly, my colleague @SenatorRomney wants to appease the left by calling witnesses who will slander the @realDonaldTrump during their 15 minutes of fame. The circus is over. It’s time to move on! #gapol
— Senator Kelly Loeffler (@SenatorLoeffler) January 27, 2020
Trump said Sunday night the claims in the Times story were false, and he insinuated the report was a leak perfectly timed to generate more publicity for Bolton’s book.
I NEVER told John Bolton that the aid to Ukraine was tied to investigations into Democrats, including the Bidens. In fact, he never complained about this at the time of his very public termination. If John Bolton said this, it was only to sell a book. With that being said, the…
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 27, 2020
