Is anyone as tired as I am of hearing television pundits, lawyers and politicians opining on whether or not the Democrats should accept a deal that allows John Bolton to testify in exchange for Hunter or Joe Biden?
Only in the Washington bubble could this kind of ridiculous argument continue as though it’s a real thing. The only deal the Democrats should be considering is how many witnesses they want to call, not who those witnesses are. If they want to call three witnesses, they should make a deal for the Republicans to call three witnesses as well, period.
The Republicans are then free to call whatever three witnesses they want, including Joe and Hunter Biden. The Democrats may think the Bidens are irrelevant to the impeachment trial, hell, most sane Americans think the Bidens are irrelevant to the impeachment trial, but if Republicans believe they can hurt Joe Biden’s chances on becoming the Democratic nominee for President by subpoenaing him to testify, then let them have at him.
Look how well that strategy worked out for them before. They were sure subpoenaing Hillary Clinton to testify on Benghazi would be the final nail in her coffin and would prevent her from becoming the nominee in 2016. 11 hours later, with Trey Gowdy soaked in flop sweat and the other republican committee members babbling incoherently to themselves, a poised, unruffled Secretary Clinton emerged stronger than ever. It would take massive voter suppression, lost ballots and Russian interference to install Individual-1 in the White House, and Clinton still won the popular vote.
We’ve all seen Perry Mason, Law and Order and the Good Wife and are familiar with how fair trials are supposed to work. 75% of the American public, including almost 40% of Republicans have stated unequivocally that they want to hear from witnesses and those numbers will only increase as every day, new, more damaging information comes out. The Democrats are in the stronger position and don’t have to play the Republicans’ game.
In fact, the above mentioned TV pundits, lawyers and politicians don’t have to play the game either. Instead of pontificating on the likelihood of bogus witness trades, they should be demanding that Senators do their constitutional duty and vote to subpoena witnesses and documents to support each side’s case. Who those witnesses are and what documents are included should be up to the side subpoenaing them.