Impeachment trial witnesses would be national security risk: Trump
President ‘would have loved’ to have met Thunberg at Davos
DAVOS: US President Donald Trump yesterday said he would prefer a longer impeachment trial so that current and former top administration officials could testify, but that having them appear would present national security concerns. Trump, speaking to reporters as he prepared to leave the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, also said he would love to go appear at the Senate trial in his own defense but that his lawyers would likely object.
“I’d love to go,” he said during a roughly 40minute-long news conference. “I’d love to do it.”
The Republican president said it was up to the Senate to decide how to handle the trial, but that he would like to have former national security adviser John Bolton and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo testify. “The problem with John (Bolton) is that it’s a national security problem,” Trump said before returning to Washington, where opening arguments were set to begin in the historic proceedings. “He knows some of my thoughts, he knows what I think about leaders. What happens if he reveals what I think about a certain leader and it’s not very positive?” he said, adding that Pompeo testifying would also be a risk.
“You could call it presidential prerogative,” Trump said. “The way I look at it, I call it national security, for national security reasons. Executive privilege.” Senators must decide whether to remove Trump from office after he was impeached last month by the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress for pressuring Ukraine to investigate former Democratic Vice President Joe Biden, a political rival, and impeding the inquiry into the matter.
Trump also said he would want to have his acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney testify but that he would not have much more to add to his public comments in television interviews. He also said he would want Rick Perry, adding that the former US Energy Secretary had asked him if he could testify.
“I would rather go the long way,” he said. But, he added, “I’ll leave that to the Senate,” adding that he would watch the proceedings after leaving the summit. Trump also said that he would like to have his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, whose efforts on behalf of the president in Ukraine are at the center of the impeachment, serve on his legal team in the Senate but that there could be a conflict.
“He could be a witness at some point,” he said. Trump said yesterday he would have loved to have met Swedish environment activist Greta Thunberg at Davos but added that she should not focus her anger on the United States. “I would have loved to have seen her,” Trump told reporters before leaving the luxury Swiss resort, while claiming that countries other than the United States were the worst polluters and “Greta ought to focus on those places”.
Trump had launched an extraordinary attack on environmental campaigners in a speech to the World Economic Forum (WEF) on Tuesday, saying they were “perennial prophets of doom” and the “heirs of yesterday’s foolish fortune tellers”. Thunberg sat quietly through the speech and was unrepentant in later remarks. “Our house is still on fire,” she said.
Trump denied he thought global warming was a hoax, saying: “No not at all-I think aspects of it are.”
He said campaigners had put global warming “at a level that is unrealistic” to the point where people cannot live their lives.
Also speaking at Davos, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin defended the administration’s policies, saying its views had been misinterpreted. “The US administration believes in clean air and clean water. This is a very complicated issue. We support a clean environment we just think it can be done in a way that is pro-business,” he said.
Kashmir issue
Trump said the United States was watching developments between India and Pakistan over Kashmir “very closely” and was prepared to help if necessary, but did not say how. Speaking ahead of talks with Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum, Trump said trade and borders were both critical points for discussion, while Khan said that for him Afghanistan was the top priority.
“Trade is going to be of very, very paramount importance ... and we’re working together on some borders, and we’re talking about Kashmir in relation to what is going on with Pakistan and India. And if we can help we certainly will be helping,” he said. “We’ve been watching that and following it very, very closely,” he added.