No Deal on Biden-Bolton Witness Exchange in Impeachment Trial
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We ran the numbers: There are 456 news articles covering this topic. 33% (150) are left leaning, 30% (135) center, 38% (171) right leaning.
As Trump’s impeachment trial continues, lawmakers from both sides still have not reached a deal on the notion of a potential exchange for witnesses, such as former Vice President Joe Biden’s son Hunter for former Trump national security adviser John Bolton. While left-leaning articles report that House impeachment managers have waded into a detailed defense of former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., right-leaning articles claim that Democrats are afraid of the prospect of having Hunter Biden testify.
A left-leaning article by The New York Times emphasizes that House impeachment managers sought on Thursday to pre-emptively dismantle Trump’s core defenses in his impeachment trial by making the case that Mr. Trump’s actions were an affront to the Constitution. Democrats took a “calculated risk” in talking at length about Biden and his son Hunter. In the chamber, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee Adam Schiff also showed a video of President Trump in which the president called both Bidens “corrupt” and called for Ukraine to start a “major investigation” into them.
Newsweek published a centrist article highlighting that the likelihood of trading potential witnesses is miniscule, given that many Republicans said they don’t think witnesses are necessary and Democrats claim that hearing from Hunter Biden is irrelevant. Democrats want to hear from Bolton, because he is believed to have firsthand knowledge of the president’s Ukraine dealings, while Republicans want to call Hunter Biden because they allege his former role on the board of the Ukrainian gas company Burisma was riddled with corruption.
A right-leaning article by Fox News reports on Ben Shapiro’s comments on Thursday’s “The Ben Shapiro Show,” where he stated that Democrats are “so out to protect Hunter Biden and Joe Biden that they are basically willing to watch this impeachment go down in flames.” Shapiro also pointed out that while Democrats claim that Republicans are utterly corrupt for not calling their witnesses, Democrats want to protect their witnesses as well.