Senate Republicans say Hunter Biden, former Vice President Joe Biden’s son, is the first person they think the President Trump’s defense team should call as a witness if they get a chance in the upcoming impeachment trial of Trump.
Seven House managers named by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday will present their case in the Senate trial, set to start Jan. 21. It’s an open question whether they’ll get to call witnesses to bolster their case for two impeachment counts against Trump in the Ukraine military aid affair.
Senate Democrats are clamoring for witnesses, starting with former Trump administration national security adviser John Bolton. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York also wants testimony from acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, Associate Director for National Security at the Office of Management and Budget Michael Duffey, and administration official Robert Blair.
However, the New York Democrat’s demand for witnesses has opened the door for Senate Republicans to push for their own wish list of who to hear from. Hunter Biden, 49, tops the list. Biden was on the board of a Ukraine natural gas company during the Obama administration, when his father, then the vice president, headed anti-corruption policy toward that country.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, when asked at a Tuesday leaders press conference about Republican senators who want Biden to testify, responded, “When you get to that issue, I can’t imagine that only the witnesses that our Democratic colleagues would want to call would be called.”
Republican Texas Sen. John Cornyn said any Republican-called witnesses are still several steps away.
“My preference is to let the president and let the impeachment managers try their own case,” Cornyn told the Washington Examiner.
Republican Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson said the president’s defense team must be given the same amount of fairness as the House impeachment managers when it comes to calling witnesses.
“What I would hate to see is have this done one witness at a time, and the House managers get their witnesses and the White House not get theirs,” Johnson said.
Senate Democrats, though, scoffed at the idea of calling Biden, claiming the effort is irrelevant or rooted in conspiracy theories.
“I don’t see the relevancy of it,” Democratic Maryland Sen. Ben Cardin told the Washington Examiner.
