Huckabee: Too Bad Romney's Not President -- Then He Could Be Impeached
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee took Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah to task, accusing the one-time GOP presidential nominee of only caring about himself, and not the good of the country.
Romney has stated multiple times that he would be interested in hearing the testimony of former National Security Advisor John Bolton in the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump, particularly after The New York Times published a story on Bolton’s upcoming book.
In the book, according to The Times, the former White House staffer writes that Trump was holding up military aid to Ukraine in hopes that its government would open an investigation into Joe and Hunter Biden’s shady dealings in the corruption-ridden country.
“What is it that [Romney] wants out of this?” Huckabee asked during a Monday appearance on “The Todd Starnes Show.”
“Does he want to be able to sit down on the table with ‘Morning Joe’ and be celebrated and beloved by that crowd?”
The former governor also lamented that Romney was not elected president in 2012, so he could get the same treatment Trump is receiving now from Democrats.
“It would’ve been good that he became president just so he could be impeached,” Huckabee said. “This is so disappointing, not surprising, but disappointing that Mitt Romney feels like he’s got to now be the contrarian. He wants to be the fly in the ointment — the guy that sides with the Democrats and their absolutely sloppy and horrible treatment of this elected president.”
Starnes responded saying that Romney has shown no gratitude to Trump, who endorsed the Utah Republican in his successful 2018 Senate run. Instead, Starnes said, Romney has turned around and stabbed the president in the back.
Huckabee noted there is no evidence Trump has engaged in an impeachable offense.
The phone transcript of Trump’s July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky itself offers no indication of a quid pro quo. Trump made no demands in order to have the aid released and in fact did not mention the funds at all.
It’s tough to have a quid pro quo demand if the other side does not even know what you want.
In fact, Trump in mid-September released the $391 million in aid after multiple senators, including Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Rob Portman of Ohio urged him to do so.
Ukraine did not open an investigation into the Bidens or make any public statements that it intended to launch one.
Further, both Zelensky and Ukraine’s foreign minister have stated on multiple occasions they felt no pressure to open a Biden probe.
Trump has categorically denied telling Bolton that the Ukraine aid was tied to the country opening investigations.
“I NEVER told John Bolton that the aid to Ukraine was tied to investigations into Democrats, including the Bidens. In fact, he never complained about this at the time of his very public termination. If John Bolton said this, it was only to sell a book,” Trump tweeted Monday.
Harvard Law School professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz, arguing on behalf of the president before the Senate on Monday night, said even if everything Bolton reportedly writes in his yet-to-be-released book is true, it is still not an example of an impeachable offense.
“Nothing in the Bolton revelations, even if true, would rise to the level of an abuse of power or an impeachable offense.
That is clear from the history.
That is clear from the language of the Constitution.” – @AlanDersh pic.twitter.com/UMyaU6ipZi
— Rep Andy Biggs (@RepAndyBiggsAZ) January 28, 2020
“That is clear from the language of the Constitution,” Dershowitz contended, noting that the nation’s founding document requires a conviction for “treason, bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.”
Huckabee concluded that Romney “has to believe that he’s smarter than the Republicans and that the Democrats are purists who just really want to protect the Constitution — or he’s in this all for himself.”
“And I think I know the answer to the question, and it’s not because he really is smarter than the other Republicans and thinks the Democrats are protecting America.”
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