Donald Trump Calls On Joe Biden, Adam Schiff, Whistleblower To Testify In Impeachment Probe
House Republicans provided a list of witness requests to House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff on Saturday for the impeachment probe into Donald Trump. The list reportedly includes former Vice President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, as well as the anonymous whistleblower that sparked the probe.
On Saturday afternoon, Trump jumped into the conversation via Twitter and listed the people he believes should testify as part of the inquiry into his behavior.
“I recommend that Nervous Nancy Pelosi (who backed up Schiff’s lie), Shifty Adam Schiff, Sleepy Joe Biden, the Whistleblower (who miraculously disappeared after I released the transcript of the call), the 2nd Whistleblower (who also disappeared), & the I.G. [inspector general], be part of the list!”
Although Democrats are required to approve all Republican requests as the majority party in the House, they are not expected to grant the testimony requests for Hunter and the whistleblower. That also makes it unlikely that they will grant Trump’s requests.
The impeachment probe into Trump’s behavior stems from his July phone call with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, in which he is accused of pressuring Zelensky to dig up dirt on the Bidens, using foreign aid as leverage. According to Trump, the Bidens were involved in corruption while Hunter was working in Ukraine — the same time his father was working to root out corruption during his time as vice president in Barack Obama’s administration.
The whistleblower in question sounded the alarm on Trump’s call, which has prompted the president to push for their testimony. But Schiff backed off of his initial desire to hear from the whistleblower after Trump continued to attack the individual and publicly attempt to undermine their credibility.
https://twitter.com/apblake/status/1193236769799639040
The name of a former staffer in Barack Obama’s White House, R. David Edelman, was recently released as the name of the anonymous whistleblower. Edelman’s identity was posted on social media and many right-wing media sites, despite the fact he reportedly left the White House in January 2017, making it impossible for him to be the whistleblower.
Per The Hill, Schiff has come under attack from Trump for his controversial opening remarks at a hearing discussing the whistleblower complaint. During the remarks, Schiff recounted Trump’s call with Zelensky by emphasizing allegations of wrongdoing, although he claims that he was joking.
In response to Schiff’s statement, Trump has called for Schiff to be arrested for treason.
“Rep. Adam Schiff illegally made up a FAKE & terrible statement, pretended it to be mine as the most important part of my call to the Ukrainian President, and read it aloud to Congress and the American people,” he tweeted. “It bore NO relationship to what I said on the call. Arrest for Treason?”
