Joe Biden shoots down Dem plan to offer Hunter Biden as witness in exchange for John Bolton

Joe Biden on Wednesday shot down a Democratic plan for a witness deal in Donald Trump’s impeachment trial in which Republicans would get to question Hunter Biden and they would get to quiz John Bolton.

But the former vice president said no to that idea while campaigning in Iowa.

‘I don’t want this to turn into a farce. This is a sacred constitutional question,’ he said. 

‘I’m not going to play his game,’ Biden said of President Trump. ‘The Senate’s job is to try him, my job is to beat him.’

Joe Biden shot down a Democratic idea for a witness deal in Donald Trump’s impeachment trial

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer also indicated on Wednesday the deal would not happen.

‘I think it’s off the table,’ he told reporters on Capitol Hill.

Some Democrats had been mulling the trade as a way to guarantee they would hear from Bolton, the president’s former National Security Adviser who compared the work of Trump’s shadow advisers in the Ukraine to that of a ‘drug deal.’

The White House said it would invoke executive privilege if Bolton were subpoenaed.  Bolton has said he would testify.

President Trump showed no interest in having the mustachioed Bolton make a dramatic last-minute entry into his impeachment as the star Democratic witness.  

‘I don’t like people testifying when they didn’t leave on good terms’ Trump said while in Switzerland – referencing Bolton’s angry departure. (He says he resigned, Trump claims he fired him). 

Republicans had seemed open to the idea. 

Trump has said he’d want Hunter Biden to testify during his impeachment trial. 

And South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, one of the president’s top allies on Capitol Hill, said Wednesday that Hunter would be wise to get a lawyer and avoid any efforts by the Senate to put him on record about the lucrative deal he got serving on the board of a Ukrainian energy company.  

Graham made the comment hours after the Senate voted on a 53-47 party line vote not to hear from Bolton.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. said if Hunter Biden as a decent lawyer he will invoke his right against self-incrimination if called to testify

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. said if Hunter Biden as a decent lawyer he will invoke his right against self-incrimination if called to testify

In the weeks leading up to the trial, Trump and his allies have tried to keep the focus on Biden’s surviving son, who landed a job on the board of energy company Burisma to the tune of a reported $50,000 per month, despite a lack of experience in the area.  

‘Hunter Biden, if he’s got a decent lawyer at all he will claim the Fifth Amendment. Because you get $50,000 a month beginning in 2014 to do what? And when your company gets investigated by the Ukrainian prosecutor the same day you get on the phone to the State Department and your business partner meets with John Kerry?’ said Graham.

‘This dismissal that Hunter Biden did everything on the up and up? I don’t know that he did everything on the up and up,’ Graham said. 

Hunter Biden has not been charged with any wrongdoing. House Democrats resisted calls by Republicans to call him as a witness.   

Hunter Biden got a lucrative position on the firm of Ukrainian energy firm Burisma

Hunter Biden got a lucrative position on the firm of Ukrainian energy firm Burisma

Democrats on Tuesday reportedly had discussed an arrangement where one of the Bidens would testify and so would John Bolton

Democrats on Tuesday reportedly had discussed an arrangement where one of the Bidens would testify and so would John Bolton

'I don't like people testifying when they didn't leave on good terms' President Trump said while in Switzerland when asked about testimony by John Bolton

‘I don’t like people testifying when they didn’t leave on good terms’ President Trump said while in Switzerland when asked about testimony by John Bolton

Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff cautioned against a trial being 'fantasy football'

Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff cautioned against a trial being ‘fantasy football’

Graham has become a fierce Trump loyalist

Graham has become a fierce Trump loyalist

Graham spoke outside the Senate chamber, where House Democratic manager Rep. Adam Schiff was making the case that Trump’s call for Ukraine to investigate Burisma and the Bidens was a corrupt act succeeded by a ‘cover-up.’ Trump also wanted Ukraine to investigate whether Ukraine had the Democratic National Committee’s server – something he mocked as a ‘kooky conspiracy theory.’ 

Schiff showed no interest in a Biden-Bolton arrangement in comments Wednesday. 

‘This isn’t a fantasy football trade like I said yesterday. This isn’t we will offer you this if you give us that or offer a witness irrelevant and immaterial with no relevant testimony but a witness that allows us to smear a presidential candidate if you give us a witness.  

‘That’s not a trade. Trials aren’t trades for witnesses.’ 

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, another Trump loyalist, came down hard against allowing Bolton to testify.

‘He’s a disgruntled employee with an ax to grind,’ said Paul said, the Washington Post reported. Paul also said 45 Republicans are ready to vote to dismiss charges against Trump.

Sen. Mike Braun (R-Indiana) said Tuesday it would be a ‘stretch’ to assume a move Republicans made to increase the length of trial presentations showed an appetite for hearing from witnesses. 

Delaware Sen. Chris Coons, who talked up the idea of Joe Biden returning to the Senate during the trial, appeared to back off. 

He told MSNBC a deal would ‘mean trading a relevant witness who should be testifying [Bolton] for a witness who has nothing to do with the charges against the president.’

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