Democratic Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal told CNN host Chris Cuomo that Republican senators “don’t want” former Vice President Joe Biden or his son, Hunter, as witnesses in the Senate impeachment trial.
Appearing on Tuesday night’s edition of “Cuomo Prime Time” to make his case for calling former National Security Adviser John Bolton as a witness, Blumenthal was asked whether or not he would accept a trade.
“Let’s say you get the witnesses,” Cuomo said. “And they say, ‘fine, you can have Bolton, we want Joe Biden.'”
“Well, Joe Biden or Hunter Biden, who is more likely to be requested, they’re saying is part of a quid pro quo,” Blumenthal responded. “I don’t think that we can do a quid pro quo trade on witnesses in an impeachment trial involving an alleged corrupt quid pro quo, more to the point.”
“But you don’t have the votes, senator,” said Cuomo. (RELATED: ‘Because I’m A Snake’: Tucker Carlson Rips John Bolton After Times Manuscript Report)
“Well, they can call Hunter Biden or Joe Biden,” said the Connecticut senator. “At any point, they have the majority.”
“You know the reason that they haven’t called them. They don’t want them as witnesses,” Blumenthal added.
Before calling again for Bolton to testify, Blumenthal insisted that the reason Republicans haven’t called the Bidens is because “they don’t want to prolong the trial and they don’t want necessarily to turn it into a circus,” yet they want to “continue the smear.”