Republicans have been trying to defend the man they most fear: Donald Trump. Some of them verbalize this fear as not caring whether the president was guilty. Others said that even if POTUS is guilty, they do not care. One former Senate Republican was in the midst of excusing Trump when he went up in flames in a CNN interview.
Rick Santorum formerly represented Pennsylvania until he lost his 2007 election bid. Perhaps, he thought that his idea of defending The Donald would gain him entrance back into that august body, the U.S. Senate. No such luck.
Santorum appeared with CNN’s Jake Tapper and Wolf Blitzer. During the interview, he noted that John Bolton’s tell-all book due to be released in March did not matter. Then, Santorum said that allegations against Trump were worthless, because “Republicans don’t care.”
Why do they not care? CBS News provided a chilling scoop during the trial, that should the Republicans vote against Trump, POTUS said “Your head will be on a pike:”
‘In opening statements, House managers examined the debunked conspiracy theories invoked by Pres. Trump.
‘A @POTUS confidant tells CBS News that GOP senators were warned: “vote against the president & your head will be on a pike.”
In opening statements, House managers examined the debunked conspiracy theories invoked by Pres. Trump.
A @POTUS confidant tells CBS News that GOP senators were warned: “vote against the president & your head will be on a pike.”
Here’s @nancycordes https://t.co/LV1Y6QveIh pic.twitter.com/tLB9EpoWr8
— CBS Evening News (@CBSEveningNews) January 23, 2020
Bolton has sent one copy of his manuscript to the White House as is a common procedure. Trump’s people were supposed to look through it looking for national security issues. Instead of returning the book so it could go to the publisher, someone copied it and leaked excerpts to The New York Times.
In his book, Bolton indicated that Trump told him about the quid pro quo. The president would release the Ukrainians’ approved $391 million in military aid for their hot Russian war. But only in exchange for an announcement of an investigation into the former Vice President Joe Biden family. Apparently, Trump believed that Biden was his top contender in the 2020 presidential election.
The commander-in-chief claimed that he “never told John Bolton” about the Ukrainian aid trade for investigating Biden and family, according to The Newsweek magazine:
‘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…’
After that, Santorum said “I tend to believe [Bolton]:’
‘I tend to believe that the president probably said this to John Bolton. And it goes back to the things we talk about all the time—the president says lots of different things on both sides of the issues. I hear it all the time here, “Well, the president is so chaotic, he says things he doesn’t mean.” And so it’s not surprising to me that he would maybe in a fit say something like this to John Bolton.’
Then, the former senator said he thought Trump and his White House were free of guilt:
‘They didn’t do it. Ultimately the money was released and everything with the relationship with the Ukraine has actually been very positive for Ukraine under this president. And even if he did do it, Republicans don’t care.’
Santorum continued, noting that “there’s no smoking gun there” around Bolton’s book:
‘The steam is out of the kettle here. I think there’s likely to be a reading of this manuscript here. Everybody can feel comfortable. There’s no smoking gun there that hasn’t been talked about and then they’re going to vote [on witnesses testifying during the Senate impeachment trial].’
Featured image is a screenshot via YouTube.
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.
