U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, a presidential contender and juror in the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump, told reporters Thursday that, if he were to become president, it would not be appropriate for his daughters to hold prominent positions with a Ukrainian natural gas company.
“I don’t think they’d have any inclination to do it, either,” the Denver Democrat said.
Hunter Biden, the son of former Vice President Joe Biden, sat on the board of the Ukrainian gas company Burisma from 2014 to 2019, at a time when his father played a leading role in U.S.-Ukrainian relations. Joe Biden is one of the leading candidates in this year’s Democratic presidential primary.
The Bidens have never been formally accused of wrongdoing, but theories surrounding Hunter Biden’s work in Ukraine led the Trump administration to withhold military aid to that European ally last year — an action that was at the heart of the U.S. House’s impeachment of Trump last month.
Before the third day of the Trump impeachment trial began Thursday, Bennet held a conference call with Colorado reporters. He declined to say whether he will vote to convict or acquit the president but called the evidence “overwhelming.”
“I think a compelling case is being put in front of the Senate and so far it hasn’t been rebutted at all, except by the president’s middle finger,” Bennet said. “So, we will see.”
White House lawyers will have 24 hours spread over three days, likely beginning Saturday, to make the president’s case to the Senate. House prosecutors argued their case Wednesday and Thursday, and are expected to argue Friday as well.
“I think we are in a constitutional crisis,” the Colorado senator said. “This is a critical moment in American history and I think we have a very important issue in front of us, which is whether the United States Senate is going to fulfill our Article I responsibilities and demand evidence and witnesses in the trial of Donald Trump.”
Bennet said the White House has engaged in a stonewalling of information that is without precedent in American history. Trump told reporters in Switzerland on Wednesday that “we have all the material, they don’t have the material,” when referring to House Democrats prosecuting him in the Senate.
“What the president was clearly saying was that the evidence was all on our side,” said Hogan Gidley, a White House principal deputy press secretary, in a meeting with reporters Thursday morning.
Bennet said he has been present for all impeachment arguments this week in the Senate. Amid reports that some senators on both sides of the aisle have left early, he said, “Not everybody is present but a lot of people are present.”
When asked about Colorado’s other senator, Republican Cory Gardner of Yuma, Bennet said, “Anybody who voted to table those witnesses voted against the interests of the American people and the interests of our democracy. I think anybody who voted that way, whether they know it or not, is helping to cover up what Donald Trump has done.”
Gardner voted Tuesday night to block the subpoenaing of witnesses and documents for the trial. Another vote on whether to have witnesses could occur next week.
“The abuses that have been alleged are as serious as we’ve seen in a generation and probably more than a generation,” Bennet said of Trump’s actions. “And the coverup that has ensued is worse than we saw during Watergate.”
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January 24, 2020 at 12:55AM
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