This Wednesday, the Senate gathered to kick off questioning for House impeachment case managers and the president’s defense team, and as the afternoon proceeded, Republican Senators Susan Collins (Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) banded together for a pointed question for the president’s side that attracted some attention and praise. In short, they asked if President Donald Trump had ever pursued the supposed Biden corruption that he was supposedly so legitimately concerned about before former VP Joe Biden entered the 2020 presidential race. And in short — White House lawyer Patrick Philbin answered that he had no evidence of the president expressing concern according to those parameters.
In other words, he effectively admitted that the timelines line up in a way to rather compellingly depict the president trying to bribe Ukraine into investigating the Bidens as a politically expedient scheme. The bribery plot sits at the center of the impeachment proceedings, and the president’s defenders have rather wistfully claimed that Trump was simply altruistically concerned about corruption in general.
The question from Collins and Murkowski included:
‘Before Joe Biden formally entered the 2020 presidential race in April 2019, did President Trump ever mention Joe or Hunter Biden in connection with corruption in Ukraine to former president Poroshenko, or other Ukrainian officials?’
And deputy White House counsel Patrick Philbin replied:
‘Thank you for that question. Of course, I think it’s important at the outset to frame the answer by bearing in mind that I’m limited by what’s in the record, and what’s in the record is determined by what the House of Representatives sought. It was their proceeding; they were the ones who led it; they were the ones who called the witnesses.’
He oh so conveinently skips over the part of the story where his boss tried to enact a total lockdown on any and all evidence getting to the House. They can’t block the investigation and then claim it wasn’t thorough enough and then expect us to take them seriously.
Eventually, Philbin got to the point. He commented:
‘There’s not something in the record on that. It wasn’t thoroughly pursued in the record. I can’t point to something in the record that shows President Trump at an earlier time mentioning something specifically related to Joe or Hunter Biden.’\
Check it out:
COLLINS/MURKOWSKI: Did Trump ever express worry about corruption in Ukraine before Biden started running?
TRUMP LAWYER PHILBIN: I can't point to something in the record that shows him mentioning something related to the Bidens. But he did talk about corruption in Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/QXFK0O4jDB
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 29, 2020
Check out Twitter reactions below. Collins and Murkowski are a couple of the Senators eyed as possible votes in favor of calling witnesses for the trial.
To my money, best question so far comes from GOP Sens Collins and Murkowski: Before Joe Biden started running for President, did Trump ever raise the issue of corruption and Biden to Ukraine's previous president or others?
White House counsel: I have nothing for you on that.— Susan Glasser (@sbg1) January 29, 2020
Did Trump ever bring up alleged Biden corruption with Poroshenko? Excellent question from Senator Collins. Of course not. If he had, Trump team would released documents on that long ago.
— Michael McFaul (@McFaul) January 29, 2020
Possible GOP swing votes for witnesses Susan Collins and @lisamurkowski question boils it down: "What did the president say to whom & when" re raising concerns about Biden and his son Hunter. #ImpeachmentTrial
— Lynn Sweet (@lynnsweet) January 29, 2020
Collins asks if there's any evidence that @realDonaldTrump wanted to investigate the Bidens before Joe Biden started beating him in the polls.
Philbin has to admit, no. There's nothing in the record about that.
— Elie Mystal (@ElieNYC) January 29, 2020
Very interesting question asked by Collins and Murkowski of all people….very interesting indeed. #ImpeachmentTrial
— Wajahat Ali (@WajahatAli) January 29, 2020
The question from Collins and Murkowski suggests they might not entirely believe the WH team’s argument that Trump was interested in rooting out corruption in Ukraine when he asked for a Biden investigation, rather than seeking to investigate his political rivals.
— Andrew Desiderio (@AndrewDesiderio) January 29, 2020
Philbin says, in response to Collins/Murkowski Q, that he can't point to anything in the record suggesting Trump raised concerns about the Bidens to anyone in his own administration or in Ukraine's before Biden entered the 2020 race.
Interesting answer, interesting questioners.
— Karoun Demirjian (@karoun) January 29, 2020
