A video of former National Security Adviser John Bolton describing the telephone calls between President Donald Trump and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy as "cordial" changes nothing with the impeachment proceedings, because the process has been flawed all along, Sen. David Perdue, R-Ga., said Thursday.
"The articles that were sent to us from the House are nothing more than fruit from a poison tree," Perdue told Fox News' "America's Newsroom." "The process in the House was illegitimate. They denied due process."
And now that the process is in a trial, "the Democrats have come over to the Senate, they've harassed us, called us co-conspirators in a cover-up," Perdue said. "They called the defense team liars. What they want us to do now is what they should have done during their investigation. They should have called these witnesses back when they had the responsibility."
The House called 17 witnesses, but have not requested any of them to speak to the Senate, he added.
Perdue also said he is optimistic there are not enough votes to allow witnesses to be called before the senate.
"If we fall into that Pandora's box, we could set a precedent where impeachments are initiated in the House with very little investigation," Perdue said. "They are sent over to the Senate in a rushed form like they have been here, and we are required to call witnesses over. There is the reason the founders didn't want that. They wanted the investigation to be done in the House because they could do it in committee without shutting the House down."
But with the Senate, nothing else can be done but try the impeachment case, Perdue pointed out.
"That's what this is all about," he said. "[Senate Minority Leader] Chuck Schumer wants to shut the Senate down because this is about the Senate majority and getting the White House in 2020."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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