Democratic presidential candidate Amy Klobuchar has some concerns about the Trump administration blocking witnesses from testifying in the Senate impeachment trial (which is currently still sitting on ice), despite 45’s claims of innocence.
“I think what is shocking to me is, right now, despite the president claiming his innocence, claiming that he wants to present witnesses, he’s the one blocking the witnesses,” the Minnesota Senator said Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union, Politico reports.
The senator pointed out that it would make sense for the president to want to bring some defense to the table, emphasizing, “He could have his acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, testify.”
Democrats have been especially keen to have Mulvaney testify. Recently, they have also added Michael Duffey’s name to the list, who serves as the associate director for national security at the Office of Management and Budget, upon the release of a new email that showed that Duffey ordered a freeze on security funding for Ukraine 90 minutes after the July 25 phone call with President Volodymyr Zelensky that started this entire saga.
“We just found out this weekend that someone who works for Mulvaney, Michael Duffey, had sent an e-mail 90 minutes after the president made that critical call to the Ukrainian president,” Klobuchar said.
There is a stutter in the proceedings currently, with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi declining to send the articles of impeachment over to the Senate until the Senate sets clear rules for the trial. Senate leaders Mitch McConnell (R-Ky) and Chuck Schumer (D-NY) were also unable to come to some sort of deal about the trial, Klobuchar remains confident that a trial will come to fruition.
“I think that there will be an agreement and this trial will go forward,” she added.