In a segment chiding Republican Senator Rand Paul (KY) for submitting a question to Chief Justice John Roberts in which he named the whistleblower whose complaint sparked the Democrats’ impeachment campaign, CNN Chief National Correspondent John King admitted that Republicans have “a legitimate point” about the House Democrats blocking them from asking the whistleblower essential questions.
The Democrats have consistently barred any reference to the individual widely believed to be the whistleblower, citing anonymity protections for federal whistleblowers, and ultimately prevented any questioning of the whistleblower by Republicans. Republicans maintain that the whistleblower’s reported coordination with the office of the Democrat who headed up the impeachment inquiry, House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA), and the whistleblower’s past previous connections, including to Joe Biden — around whom the Democrats’ accusation of Trump’s Ukraine pressure campaign revolves — requires that the whistleblower be questioned.
On Thursday, CNN’s King admitted what few mainstream outlets have been willing to acknowledge: “Republicans make a good point.”
“Republicans make a good point,” said King, as seen in a clip that President Trump highlighted on Thursday. “The whistleblower started all this. Why has the whistleblower never been questioned? Shouldn’t the House Democrats have found a secure way to do that? It’s a legitimate point of debate.”
CNN's John King: "Republicans make a good point. The Whistleblower started all this. Why has the Whistleblower never been questioned? Shouldn’t the House Democrats have found a secure way to do that? It’s a legitimate point of debate." pic.twitter.com/lsutmBXBwJ
— ALX 🇺🇸 (@alx) January 30, 2020
During the Senate trial, over which he is presiding, Chief Justice Roberts has maintained the protection of the whistleblower’s identity, which prompted him to reject a question submitted this week by Sen. Paul. On Thursday, Paul presented his question to the public anyhow.
“My question today is about whether or not individuals who were holdovers from the Obama National Security Council and Democrat partisans conspired with Schiff staffers to plot impeaching the President before there were formal House impeachment proceedings,” said Paul. The senator then tweeted out the censored question:
My exact question was: Are you aware that House intelligence committee staffer Shawn Misko had a close relationship with [the alleged whistleblower] while at the National Security Council together and are you aware and how do you respond to reports that [the alleged whistleblower] and Misko may have worked together to plot impeaching the President before there were formal house impeachment proceedings.
When Roberts received Paul’s question Thursday, he told the Senate, “The presiding officer declines to read the question as submitted.”
Chief Justice John Roberts declined to read a question from a senator from Kentucky: "The presiding officer declines to read the question as submitted" https://t.co/WlozSBas9w pic.twitter.com/KU0tfQ1pd3
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) January 30, 2020
President Trump’s impeachment team has also hammered the issue of the whistleblower’s previous connections, actions leading up to the submission of the complaint, and potential motives during the trial. On Wednesday, President Trump’s deputy counsel Patrick Philbin asked a series of questions House Democrats blocked from being answered.
“If the whistleblower, as is alleged in some public reports, actually did work for then-Vice President Biden on Ukraine issues, exactly what was his role?” asked Philbin. “What was his involvement when issues were raised — we know from testimony that questions were raised — about the potential conflict of interest that the vice president then had when his son was sitting on the board of Burisma. Was the alleged whistleblower involved in any of that and in making decisions to not do anything related to that?”
“Did he have some reason to want to put the deep-six on any question raising any issue about what went on with the Bidens and Burisma and firing Shokin and withholding a billion dollars in loan guarantees and enforcing a very explicit quid pro quo — you won’t get this billion dollars until you fire him? We don’t know,” Philbin continued. “And because Manager Schiff was guiding this whole process, because he was the chairman in charge of directing the inquiry and directing it away from any of those questions, that creates a real due process defect in the record that has been presented here.”