President Donald Trump claimed on Wednesday that he would “love” for the top officials involved his Ukraine scheme to testify in the Senate impeachment trial, but doing so would pose a “national security problem.”
During a press conference at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Trump told reporters that he’d “rather” have former National Security Adviser John Bolton testify, but “the problem with John is that it’s a national security problem.”
“You can’t have somebody whose at national security,” Trump said. “If you think about it, John, he knows some of my thoughts. He knows what I think about leaders.”
He also pointed out how Bolton’s departure from the White House was less than peaceable.
“You don’t like people testifying when they didn’t leave on good terms,” Trump said.
The President cited the same issue in regards to acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney’s potential testimony, even though he’d “love to have Mick go.”
He followed up with the same excuse about Secretary of State Mike Pompeo: “I’d love to have Mike Pompeo testify but again that’s a national security problem.”
And then Trump made a similar comment about Perry, saying he’d “love” for his energy secretary to testify.
“But we’re dealing with national security,” he said.
The Senate’s GOP majority voted to shoot down all of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-NY) efforts to amend Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) trial resolution and allow subpoenas for witnesses and documents to be issued at the beginning of the trial.
Watch Trump below:
Trump: I would “rather” have Bolton testify but “the problem with John is that it's a national security problem.” pic.twitter.com/EAVFVGwQxZ
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) January 22, 2020
Trump: I’d “love” for Mick Mulvaney, Mike Pompeo, and Rick Perry testify but “we’re dealing with national security.” pic.twitter.com/nJTbtmSOSA
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) January 22, 2020
