Senator Mazie Hirono (D-HI) said on Tuesday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Live,” that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) is obfuscating in an attempt to coverup President Donald Trump’s dealings with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky which she called a “bribe.”
Hirono said, “Listening to Mitch McConnell always makes you feel you’re going down the Alice in Wonderland rabbit hole. Why shouldn’t we have witnesses? Why shouldn’t we have live witnesses, especially somebody like John Bolton, who was right there who can provide eyewitness, first-person testimony? Wouldn’t the American public like to hear that? And how about some production of documents? Here’s the White House that did not respond to 71 requests for documents, which meant that they were stonewalling this whole thing. For Mitch McConnell to say what he says, is really continuing the White House’s efforts to stonewall, and what I would call basically rigging the trial, just as he tried to rig his re-election by leaning on the Ukrainian president to do his political bidding.”
She continued, “I think there are certain senators who are facing tough re-elections who care about what their constituents are saying. I think what the bottom line is the majority of the American people understand that a trial should have witnesses, relevant witnesses, and relevant documents. I think everyone in all fairness would agree with that. For Mitch to continue to obfuscate that question by throwing out all kinds of other things, so we’re not focused on what the trial is all about. Is it okay for the president of the United States to shake down the president of another country to do his political bidding using almost 400 million of our taxpayer money as a bribe? That is what the trial is supposed to be focusing on.”
She added, “Mitch tries to make us look the other way. We should look at what the president did and decide whether it’s impeachable. I’m waiting for the president to mount his defense. I hope his defense is going to be more than what he’s been saying this is a witch hunt or the Mulvaney, ‘get over it, I did it, so what’ defense. I hope his defense is going to be more than that.”
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