‘I think the Bidens are as corrupt as the day is long…’
(Claire Russel, Liberty Headlines) Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said if moderate Republicans vote for witness testimony in the Senate impeachment trial of President Donald Trump, he will force the Senate to vote to subpoena Hunter Biden.
Forcing a vote on Hunter Biden would back moderate Republicans into a corner, Paul said.
“If you vote against Hunter Biden, you’re voting to lose your election, basically. Seriously. That’s what it is,” Paul told Politico. “If you don’t want to vote and you think you’re going to have to vote against Hunter Biden, you should just vote against witnesses, period.”
Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Mitt Romney, R-Utah, have all signaled support for calling additional witnesses and evidence.
Collins has met with a bipartisan group to figure out a way to allow former national security advisers John Bolton to testify without bucking Republican leadership.
But Paul said if the Democrats get to call Bolton, Trump should “be able to call any witnesses that he deems necessary to his defense.”
Collins said she agrees the process must be balanced: “If he’s saying that both sides should have an opportunity, I agree with that, to call witnesses. We’ll make the call on which ones. But it isn’t fair to just let one side call witnesses.”
During former President Bill Clinton’s impeachment in 1999, Collins voted to include additional evidence and witness testimony, which is why she is considering doing so again, she explained.
“While I need to hear the case argued and the questions answered, I tend to believe having additional information would be helpful,” Collins said in a statement. “It is likely that I would support a motion to call witnesses at that point in the trial just as I did in 1999.”
The Democrats have built their case against Trump on the allegation that he abused his power and engaged in corruption, Paul said. But if that’s the case, he continued, why aren’t the Democrats interested in investigating the Bidens’ potential corruption?
“I think the Bidens are as corrupt as the day is long. No young man who is the son of a politician gets $50,000 a month who has no experience, working for a Ukrainian oligarch. You know, for goodness sakes — it smells to high heaven. It smells like corruption,” he told Fox News.
“I think the American people don’t buy it,” Paul added. “Here’s the thing: Fair is fair. If they’re going to put the president through this, they’re going to have to have witnesses on both sides.”
Ideally, the Senate will open the trial and immediately vote on the case the House has brought against the president, Paul said.
But he understands there are some Republican senators who must be convinced first.
“I’m for immediate dismissal, but I know it’s not just four [senators],” he explained. “There might be 10 that are against immediate dismissal. But when it’s something that we’re trying to stay together and there is the other team trying to attack our leader, I think it behooves us to have as much unanimity as we can.”