Senate Dems Reportedly Considering Hunter Biden-John Bolton Trade for Impeachment Witnesses

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A new report suggested that Senate Democrats are debating whether they will allow Republicans to call on Hunter Biden to testify in President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial, if, in exchange, they get to call up John Bolton.

Washington Post reports that “a small group of Democratic senators and aides” have thought about proposing the deal if it means they’ll get to hear from White House officials who could offer firsthand witness testimony about the Ukraine scandal. This comes into contrast with other Democrats who’ve dismissed the idea of Biden’s testimony by saying it would be an “irrelevant” distraction that wouldn’t shed any light on the president’s conduct.

From the report:

These Democrats said they believe having Hunter — or possibly Joe Biden — testify could backfire on Trump and the GOP, giving Biden and the party a platform to strike back and paint Republicans and the White House as obsessed with trying to damage one of Trump’s 2020 presidential rivals.
What Trump has said about impeachment witnesses

“If you want to give Joe Biden an opportunity to sit in the well of the Senate and answer the question, ‘Do you think the president acted appropriately?’ go right ahead,” said Sen. Christopher A. Coons (D-Del.), a Biden supporter who is close with the family…I can’t imagine a person more comfortable in the well of the Senate than a man who spent 36 years here as a United States senator.”

While Trump and his allies might relish the chance to interrogate Joe or Hunter Biden about the latter’s work with the Ukrainian Burisma gas company, Democrats are interested in Bolton’s testimony due to the possibility that he may provide groundbreaking information on the Ukraine scandal. The former White House national security adviser has said that he’s willing to testify if the Senate subpoenas him.