Sen. Tom Cotton Friday accused House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff of protecting former Vice President Joe Biden from scrutiny in the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump out of fears that others may win the Democratic presidential nomination.
"I think shifty Adam Schiff and Nancy Pelosi are going the extra mile to protect Joe Biden," the Arkansas Republican told Fox News' "Fox and Friends," adding that Pelosi has "started to intimate that she is worried that radical left-wingers like Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren may win the presidential nomination. That leaves all the chips left on Joe Biden and his faltering campaign."
As a result, said Cotton, "I can't imagine that she wants to see Joe Biden or Hunter Biden called to account for this obvious conflict of interest during the Obama era."
Meanwhile, Schiff has moved to have "public show trials" starting next week, but "the Republicans can only have witnesses if they will play into his storyline," said Cotton.
The testimony will not portray what really happened or allow either of the Bidens to be called in to testify, said Cotton, even though they may be the "most important witnesses," as Hunter Biden would have to explain what he was "doing for a Ukrainian oligarch under investigation for $50,000 to $80,000 a month."
His father, Cotton said, would have to "explain why he didn't recuse himself from all matters related to Ukraine given this obvious conflict of interest with his son."
He also questioned whether Schiff would call the whistleblower whose report triggered the inquiry in for testimony, even if he does qualify under the Democrats' rules as written.
"Look, our whistleblower protection statutes are designed to protect government employees from retaliation at work from reporting misconduct in their agency or their department," said Cotton. "They are not there to allow you to launch impeachment proceedings against the president of the United States while colluding with Democratic operatives in Congress and throughout the government."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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