Exclusive – Rick Scott: Senate to ‘Hopefully’ Acquit Trump by Friday Night

Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) told Breitbart News in an exclusive interview Thursday that he believes that the Senate will most likely be able to acquit President Donald Trump by Friday night.

Scott spoke to Breitbart News before the Senate began its second day of asking the House Democrat impeachment managers and Trump’s legal counsel questions regarding the articles of impeachment laid against the president. Democrats charged Trump with abusing the office of the presidency and obstructing Congress.

Democrats have also lobbied the Senate to vote for additional witnesses, especially former National Security Adviser John Bolton after leaks from his book alleged that Trump tied foreign national security aid to an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter.

Scott said that he believes that the call for additional witnesses serves as part of a strategy to cover up for Joe Biden’s presidential campaign.

“I think this is just a cover-up for Joe Biden. Think about it. Why did they hold it for 33 days? By holding it they kept Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren off the campaign trail. I think that probably helps Joe Biden. I think if you look at their whole case — how much they talked about the Bidens, I think that they’re trying to clean up his problem. I mean he’s got big problems. I mean he brags about getting rid of a prosecutor. He held up federal money; he bragged about it. To get rid of a prosecutor, he was getting paid $83,000 a month for it,” Scott told Breitbart News.

“I think people are tired and ready to get this over with. I know Republicans, Democrats, and everybody are tired and ready to get back and do something positive. I know taxpayers and voters are sick and tired of this,” Scott added.

The Florida conservative contended that the Democrats have also deployed the same strategy they used during the confirmation of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. He said that Democrats have moved to delay impeachment to the detriment of the country.

“If it’s not Bolton, it’ll be someone new; something new will come out. This is like the Kavanaugh hearing. It’s just a drip, drip, drip, and they’ll bring up something, and oh we have to talk to them. And by the way, if we’re going to have Bolton [testify], we’re going to have Biden, then we’re going to have Hunter Biden. We’re going to have Adam Schiff. We’re going to have the whistleblower, and this will never, ever end. And I think everybody’s tired of it, and it’s all come down to this partisanship. I think everybody knows that this is not good for the country,” Scott said.

Scott ran an ad in Iowa this week ahead of the Iowa caucuses that attacked that Democrat-led impeachment trial and accused Joe Biden of corruption. 

The Florida Republican said that he wanted to highlight how the then-vice president held up foreign aid to Ukraine to pressure Ukraine to fire a prosecutor investigating Ukrainian oil company Burisma Holdings. Hunter Biden was affiliated with Burisma.

Scott said, “I put out an ad in Iowa about this because I think people ought to be talking about this, talking about how the then-sitting vice president bragged about holding up money to get a prosecutor fired and he was investigating a company. He [Hunter Biden] has no background for this. How crazy is this: The Democrats are saying that it’s okay for a sitting vice president to get a prosecutor fired, but for a president to let an ambassador go; the president has the right to fire any ambassador he wants for whatever reason he wants.”

Scott said that he believes that the Senate will wrap with impeachment by the end of Friday and let the country move forward from this “partisan impeachment” process. 

“I think it’ll hopefully end Friday night, and then we will go back to doing good things for the country,” he said.

“I’m hoping that’s what is going to happen when each side presents their case. At that point we take the vote immediately. We say we’re not going to have witnesses, and we go forward and acquit the president. This is a partisan impeachment. It should never have happened. It’s not good for the presidency; it’s not good for the country,” Scott added.