WASHINGTON — Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said the Senate Intelligence Committee would be looking into the whistleblower complaint against President Donald Trump this week — and wagged his finger at top Democrats for “politicizing” the issue.
“As my friend Sen. Schumer is aware, Chairman Burr and Vice Chairman Warner have been working together to get the acting director of intelligence and the intelligence committee’s inspector general before the committee this week to discuss the matter,” the Republican McConnell said in a floor speech opening up the Senate Monday afternoon.
“As with most matters before the committee, I believe it’s extremely important that their work be handled in a secure setting with adequate protections in a bipartisan fashion and based on facts rather than leaks to the press.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) had just concluded his own remarks in which he tried to shame Republican colleagues for not investigating the whistleblower complaint immediately.
News reports have said that the complaint alleges that Trump, on a phone call with Ukraine’s new President Volodymyr Zelensky, suggested he work with his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani to investigate the business dealings of Hunter Biden, former Vice President and 2020 Democratic frontrunner Joe Biden’s son. In the meantime, military aid to Ukraine was delayed.
“So far, in the face of this dire warning and the Trump administration’s effort to cover it up, the Republican-led Senate has remained silent and submissive, shying away from the institution’s Constitutional duty to conduct oversight,” Schumer said. “That’s an obligation we have … that’s our job.”
But McConnell rejected that assessment saying on the floor that Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and the committee’s top Democrat, Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) were already on it. He called out Schumer and also House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) for squawking about it to the press.
Schiff said Sunday that the controversy made him more pro-impeachment.
McConnell reminded his fellow senators that only news reports have detailed the complaint’s claim. “Although we don’t know the substance of the allegations there is speculation that it relates to our relationship with Ukraine.
“I was very glad to see the White House release security assistance funds for Ukraine,” McConnell added. “I championed U.S. security assistance to Ukraine over the objections of the Obama administration in 2014.”
The Kentucky Republican said he had been pushing the Trump administration for months, trying to get Ukraine the money.
McConnell said he raised the issue two times with the Secretary of Defense, and also pressured Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, as well as senior officials at the Office of Management and Budget and the National Security Council.
“Throughout July, August and early September I worked hard to ensure Ukraine received this much needed assistance,” McConnell said. “That’s because going back years I’ve urged administrations of both parties to be completely clear-eyed of the dangerous intention of Putin’s Russia and the importance of standing with Ukraine.
“I sounded the alarm early and often when President Obama went soft on Putin and missed opportunities to send arms to Ukraine,” McConnell added.
It remains unclear why the money to Ukraine was delayed.
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