House Speaker Nancy Pelosi praised the idea of having the House seek the testimony from disgruntled ex-Trump administration aides after a CNN reporter recommended the move during a weekly press conference.
“Why doesn’t the House — why shouldn’t the House call them to have them testify under oath to tell their stories to Americans?” CNN congressional correspondent Manu Raju asked Pelosi, a California Democrat and staunch opponent of the Trump administration.
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“I think your idea is a great one,” Pelosi said. Pelosi called members of Trump’s staff who remain on the job “enablers” who are at least partly responsible for the nearly 200,000 deaths from the coronavirus.
Pelosi praised Olivia Troye, a former aide to Vice President Mike Pence who on Thursday accused Trump of “flat-out disregard for human life” and said the president put the economy and his reelection ahead of stopping the coronavirus.
Pelosi said Trump’s staff should have confronted the president or walked off the job last spring after Trump suggested that the coronavirus outbreak would be under control by Easter.
“Where were his people coming out and saying, ‘That’s not right, Mr. President?’” Pelosi said Friday. “We’re going to leave if you continue to speak that way.”
Raju asked Pelosi whether the House would seek Troye’s testimony and suggested they also summons John Bolton, the former national security adviser who recently wrote a tell-all book criticizing the president.
“I’ll leave it up to the committees as to how they proceed,” Pelosi said.
