A number of Americans quite likely have been pondering a question over the last couple of weeks that Mitt and I agree on.
I am referring, of course, to erstwhile presidential candidate and current U.S. Sen. Willard Mitt Romney, 72, the Republican former governor of Massachusetts who now lives in Holladay, Utah.
Perhaps he remembers me, since I voted for him for president in 2012. Yeah, I know I was among 60,933,503 million other Americans who backed him instead of Obama (65,915,795 votes), but people (my mother, for example) have mentioned that I’m memorable.
However, just in case I failed to register with him during the 2012 election season, Mitt and I now have another point of intersection.
We both want to know what former U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton knows about the Trump-Ukrainian affair.
Even before I was a journalist, I was a person who wanted to know the back story on any and all subjects in my sphere. Hence, I found a career where nosiness is considered an asset, not a liability. I don’t think my listening ears are abnormally sized, but my interest level always is.
So, I was gratified on Jan. 6, when my friend, Mitt, stepped away from a whole gang of incurious Republican officials and admitted to being, in fact, curious, soon after Bolton said he was willing to testify about Ukraine in Trump’s impeachment trial in the Senate, if subpoenaed.
“I would like to be able to hear from John Bolton,” Mitt said, citing Bolton’s firsthand, seat-at-the-table knowledge of events, according to several news outlets.
Bolton turned a mostly cold shoulder to U.S. House Democrats who sought his testimony, but now, apparently, wants to sing to the Senate. Give the man a starting pitch, say Mitt and I.
And we’re not the only ones.
An ABC News and Washington Post poll released in mid-December found that about 70 percent of Americans believed Trump administration officials should be allowed to testify in the impeachment proceedings, despite Trump ordering them not to. By political affiliation, the numbers broke down to 79 percent of Democrats, 64 percent of Republicans and 72 percent of independents.
Since I, and the Leader, identify as independent, the reported bipartisan support for this notion is pleasing.
The poll makes me think the majority of Jefferson County residents are in line with Mitt and me. Although nearly all elected offices have gone to Republicans in Jefferson County’s last few election cycles, the votes themselves show more diversity, breaking down to 60 percent Republican and 40 percent Democratic. A fair number of those votes were cast by independents who chose their horses, race by race, across party lines.
You have to conclude that many of us who are friends and neighbors in these parts want to know the whole Trump-Ukrainian story.
That means we want to hear from Bolton and other aides with firsthand knowledge of Trump’s actions and statements, just as the Democrats demand.
AND, we want to hear from those on the Republicans’ wish list of witnesses – like the whistleblower (incognito, please), Joe Biden and Hunter Biden. Yeah, and U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff, too, who has questions to face about the inception of the investigation.
No one, at present, appears to know whether Bolton would vindicate or implicate Trump, and that’s all right. Just answer the questions.
Biden and his backers insist he was only doing his job, under national and international direction, in forcing out Ukrainian prosecutor Victor Shokin, and there was no connection to Hunter Biden’s membership on the board of a Ukrainian natural gas company that had been under investigation. Just tell the story.
Truth, given under oath.
It’s probably too much to expect senators to put aside political snarkiness, but Chief Justice John Roberts, who will preside over the trial, may have a long enough ruler to rap some knuckles or knuckleheads.
Note to all sides: If you’ve got nothing to hide, stop trying to hide it. The same premise applies to documents. Hand them over.
After everyone gets asked the questions and answers them, then the larger question can be considered: Was what went down before, during and after Trump’s July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky justification to remove President Donald J. Trump from office?
An independent wants to have all the information available before answering such an important question.
And a nosy person NEEDS to know in the worst way.
So, just tell me, Congress. (I’ll pass it on to Mitt.)
