TRANSCRIPT: Schumer Remarks Urging Senate GOP To Support Calling Bolton, Mulvaney, And Other Key Witnesses To Testify Under Oath

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer spoke today at a press conference ahead of today’s Senate impeachment trial proceedings. Sen. Schumer urged his Republican colleagues to support calling for testimony under oath from former National Security Advisor John Bolton, Mick Mulvaney, Acting White House Chief of Staff, and other key witnesses and documents. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:

Good morning everybody. I’m proud to be joined by two of my outstanding colleagues, the Senators from Maryland and Wisconsin.

Now, over a month ago we said that hearing from witnesses and reviewing documents is the bare minimum for a fair trial. Since then, redacted emails were released that said there was “clear direction” from the president to hold the military assistance, the GAO concluded that the president broke the law in doing so, and new information from Mr. Parnas revealed a plot to remove a U.S. Ambassador.

And now, according to The New York Times, Ambassador Bolton wrote in his book that he was ordered by the president to continue freezing assistance until Ukraine announced the political investigations the president was seeking – including the investigation into the Bidens. This is stunning. It goes right to the heart of the charges against the president. Ambassador Bolton essentially confirms the president committed the offenses charged in the first article of impeachment.

It boils down to one thing: we have a witness with firsthand evidence of the president's actions for which he is on trial. He is ready and willing to testify. How can Senate Republicans not vote to call that witness and request his documents? Anyone—anyone—who says the House case lacks eyewitnesses and then votes to prevent eyewitnesses from testifying is talking out of both sides of their mouth.

Also, according to the report, several sections of Mr. Bolton's book further implicate Mr. Mulvaney. Previously, Mr. Mulvaney denied ever being on the phone when the president spoke to Rudy Giuliani. Mr. Bolton writes that Mr. Mulvaney was on the phone with Rudy Giuliani and the president was discussing the removal of Ambassador Yovanovitch.

Mr. Bolton's book is further evidence that a large number of people were “in the loop” on this scheme, as Ambassador Sondland said. And now they're all covering up.

So it seems like not only is there more evidence that the president held the aid off to get a political gain and investigation, but there seems to be a giant coverup among so many of the leading people in the White House who knew about it and said nothing about it, let alone tried to stop it.

If there was ever even a shred of logic left to not hear witnesses and review the documents, Mr. Bolton's book just erased it.

Ambassador Bolton's manuscript was sent to the White House over a month ago. The president ordered everyone with firsthand knowledge of his actions not to testify in the impeachment inquiry. We're all staring a White House coverup in the face. It is so clear what's going on here. I don't need to spell it out for you.

If Senate Republicans are not going to vote to call Mr. Bolton and Mr. Mulvaney and the other witnesses now, if they're not going to ask for notes and emails, they're going to be part of the coverup, too, because we have this out in the open. It's up to four Senate Republicans, just four Senate Republicans to ensure that John Bolton, Mick Mulvaney, Mr. Blair and Mr. Duffey testify in the Senate trial. It's up to four Republicans to get the documents that surrounded their actions in those days.

One final point. Of course the president denied Ambassador Bolton's account in a series of late-night tweets. Already some Republicans are saying, ‘Oh, this is just a ‘he-said, he-said’ affair, just a matter of conflicting accounts.

I would remind everyone between President Trump and Ambassador Bolton, only one of them is willing to testify in the Senate under oath, only Mr. Bolton is willing to swear that he is telling the truth.

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