Donald Trump may be in Switzerland at the Davos Summit, but he still finds some time to watch his own impeachment trial. He also managed to pull the strings of his defense team. The problem is that this puppet master is erratic, so those at the ends of his strings dance the dance macabre and jerk across the nation’s stage. This is what POTUS wanted Wednesday morning.
Normally, the defendant may testify, but it appeared that he will not. Normally, a trial has witnesses and documents that support the evidence the Democrats’ attorneys’ (managers’) will present. Not in this case, if the Senate Republicans have any say about it, and they do.
Trump said that he would like former National Security Adviser John Bolton and other top officials to testify, but he would prevent it. What? How can he say both of those things in one breath?
Then, the president added he wanted Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, and former Energy Secretary Rick Perry to testify, too. After that, he said he would have to assert executive privilege, though, due to a national security risk, according to NBC News:
‘I would rather go to the long way. I would rather interview Bolton. I would rather interview a lot of people. The problem with John is that it’s a national security problem. You can’t have somebody whose in national security, and if you think about it… John, he knows some of my thoughts. He knows what I think about leaders.’
Next, POTUS said “It’s going to be very hard:”
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.’
Trump continued, noting that Bolton “knows my thoughts:”
‘He knows other things, and I don’t know if we left on the best of terms. I would say probably not, you know, 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, so we will see what happens. When he knows my thoughts on certain people and other governments and we are talking about massive trade deals, and war, and peace, and all these different things that we talk about, that’s really a very important national security problem.’
When it came to acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, the commander-in-chief said he would “love to have Mick to testify” but he already gave a Chris Wallace interview. Wow. Who knew that an interview would get a person out of a subpoena:
‘I would like to have Mike Pompeo testify, but again, that’s a national security problem… I’d love to have Rick Perry. Rick Perry has asked me, “I would love to testify, please let me testify,” because he knows this is all a hoax. He understands it better than most, and Rick Perry would love to testify. But we are dealing with national security.
Then, the president added his old refrain that this was a “hoax:”
We are dealing with one other thing. Our country has been tied up with this hoax from the day I came down the escalator. We have been fighting it, I have been fighting it from the day I have been elected. I would say probably long before. It could be long before I came down the escalator… some people have said that, which is hard to believe… Personally, I would rather go the long route. It’s horrible for our country. Our country has to get back to business.’
Watch Trump’s speech here:
The Mueller Report Adventures: In Bite-Sizes on this Facebook page. These quick, two-minute reads interpret the report in normal English for busy people. Mueller Bite-Sizes uncovers what is essentially a compelling spy mystery. Interestingly enough, Mueller Bite-Sizes can be read in any order.
