On Wednesday, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) made a compelling case for why Donald Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton should testify in the Senate impeachment trial of Donald Trump.
When asked by Kevin Frey, a reporter for Spectrum News, about the contents of the forthcoming book by Bolton, Tillis refused to answer.
“I think it’s a hypothetical because I don’t know what he said,” Tillis replied.
“But you could find out,” Frey responded, alluding to the fact that Tillis could vote to subpoena Bolton to testify in the impeachment trial. Thus far, most Republicans have been resistant to subpoenaing new witnesses to uncover additional evidence.
According to reports, Bolton claims in the book that Trump said he was withholding critical military aid to Ukraine in order to pressure the government to open investigations that could benefit Trump politically.
Tillis stumbled in his response before finally casting blame on the House of Representatives.
“Well, I.. I… uh… I would hope that if the House thought that it was something serious that would ultimately rise to a credible basis for drawing up an article of impeachment, that they would make that decision in the House.”
Despite Tillis’ claim, the House of Representatives did ask Bolton to testify in November. However, Bolton refused to do so voluntarily.
In January, Bolton announced that he was willing to testify in the Senate impeachment trial if called as a witness, which would give Tillis the opportunity to learn what is in Bolton’s book.
Before the Senate trial started, Tillis voted 11 times against subpoenaing documents and witnesses in the trial, including testimony from Bolton.
Senators are likely to vote on hearing from witnesses again at the end of the week. Polls repeatedly show Americans support witnesses in the trial
Tillis, who faces a tough reelection race in November, has not definitively said how he will vote on the issue, but has previously called the impeachment of Trump “a sham” and a “waste of America’s time.”
