Pushing for witnesses is the right thing to do
I think a lot of us wondered why the Democrats want to call Trump political appointee Michael Duffy for the Senate trial. Here it is:
91 minutes after President Trump’s July 25 call:Michael Duffey sent an email ordering military assistance to Ukraine be withheld.
If there was ever an argument that we need Duffey and others to testify & we need the documents we requested—this is it.
This email is explosive. pic.twitter.com/XU1fcSV10z
— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) December 22, 2019
Schumer went on to tweet, “if there is nothing wrong with withholding the aid, why didn’t Michael Duffey want anyone to know about what he was doing? If the call was so perfect, why is the email so “sensitive” that it should be kept hush-hush? What are they afraid of?”
Mark Sumner at Daily Kos nicely summarized what we learned from these heavily redacted emails:
One of the first emails shows Office of Management and Budget official Michael Duffey following up on an article published by The Washington Examiner. Duffey makes it clear that he is following up on the article at the direct order of Trump. ..
Though Republicans during the hearing trotted out multiple reasons for the hold, the emails show that those excuses were all fabricated after the fact. Right up until the day Trump finally released the hold.
OMB director and acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney earlier admitted that there had been some internal concern about the legality of Trump’s actions. But he dismissed those concerns as “one of those things that … makes it look a lot worse than it really is.”
Mulvaney’s ongoing confessions are the reason for him to be called to testify as well. (He’s rumored to be on his way out of the White House right after the trial because Trump is unhappy with him. I doubt he has the guts to defy Trump however. None of them do.)
The problem with all of this, of course, is that Republicans believe that criminal and impeachable behavior is just fine as long as their President is doing it. Honestly, I think if Trump was shown on video telling Vladimir Putin that he was happy he was able to deliver the goods to Russia pursuant to their agreement, they would still defend it.
Oh wait:
Here’s Donald Trump desperately trying to get Vlad’s attention at the G20 dinner. pic.twitter.com/5sIKuJvtu8— Jennifer Hayden (@Scout_Finch) July 19, 2017
Still, these witnesses could be pivotal in public opinion and would put some of these swing state Senators in a very bad position. The Democrats are right to push this.
Happy Hollandaise! It’s Holiday Fundraiser time. if you’re of a mind to put a little something in the Christmas stocking to keep this thing going for another year, I’d be very grateful:
