January 30th, 2020 by WCBC Radio
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) said this week he wants to hear more witnesses in the impeachment trial of Pres. Donald Trump, including John Bolton and Mick Mulvaney. “I want witnesses,” he said in a conference call with the press. “I want to hear evidence that is pertinent to the charges…”
Manchin said he cannot understand “for the life of me” how a decision can be made without hearing the dialogue (heard by witnesses) or see what was redacted in documents related to the case.
A fair decision cannot be made without witnesses, he said, and that includes people like Bolton, Trump’s former National Security Advisor, and White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, both of whom had direct discussions with the President.
Bolton’s book, “The Room Where It Happened,” details those discussions and Bolton has said he is willing to testify, but Mulvaney will probably fight it if he is called, Manchin said.
The impeachment process is serious, Manchin said, and should be treated as the framers of the Constitution intended: as a real trial.
Manchin said it would be irresponsible to have a trial about “the most important vote in my life” without hearing all the evidence, and he “can’t believe” any of the 100 senators would not want to call witnesses.
He blasted both parties for politicizing the process and key members of both parties, as well as Trump team attorneys Alan Dershowitz and Ken Starr, for completely switching their positions on the fundamentals of the process from the Bill Clinton impeachment 20 years ago.
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January 31, 2020 at 9:24 am, Pat said:
Joe–That’s because the majority of the Senators already know the facts of this charade. It was up to the House Managers to present their case when they did the impeachment including presenting additional witnesses. Now that they don’t have the evidence to convict, they want more witnesses. What a joke! They’re the ones who should be disbarred instead of Trump’s defense team as Pelosi would suggest.