U.S. Senate Democrats need four Republicans to join them in calling for witnesses during President Trump’s impeachment trial, and Oklahoma Sen. James Lankford will probably not be one of them.
Lankford told NPR's Steve Inskeep on "Morning Edition" Wednesday that Republicans are trying to suss out the relevance of witnesses because Democrats have more than one in mind.
"They had 11 different series of document requests, witnesses, things they want to be able to do that would stretch out this trial for months and months. So, the challenge that we have is, is this a mode to try to stretch the trial out through the election time? Or is this a fact-finding, gathering?" Lankford said.
Lankford's apprehension extends to former National Security Adviser John Bolton, whose book reportedly says Trump directly tied military assistance for Ukraine to investigations he wanted. Lankford said he’d read a manuscript, but thinks House impeachment managers misrepresented Bolton’s statements.
"His comment several times … was, ‘Take that to the lawyers. Go talk to the lawyers about that.’ The Democratic counsel made that into a very big issue, like this is an enormous thing. You and I both know in Washington, D.C., it’s a very common phrase to be able to say, ‘That’s a concern, take it to the lawyers,’ be able to work it all out," Lankford said.
Lankford also said he sees constitutional issues with allowing witnesses after House impeachment manager Adam Schiff didn’t turn to the judicial branch when Trump refused to allow witnesses from the White House during House proceedings.
"They chose not to go through the courts, and now his saying is, 'Don’t go to the courts. Just compel testimony to be able to do this and blast through that.' That is another constitutional issue to be able to remove executive privilege in the days ahead or to say that a president doesn’t have the ability to go to court," Lankford said.
Two days of questions from senators will wrap up Thursday.
