Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has a series of demands in the form of four witnesses he would like to see testify at the Senate's impeachment and the media are doing everything in their power to pressure Republicans into accepting them. MSNBC Live host Hallie Jackson confronted Vice President Pence's chief of staff Marc Short on Tuesday about Schumer's list in a contentious interview.
Jackson began by asking, "Senator Schumer says if Mick Mulvaney, John Bolton doesn't testify, it sounds like a coverup, but I’m paraphrasing here. Does he have a point?" Short responded with an emphatic "No." He added, "We were not provided to see the evidence they presented, we’re not able to provide our own evidence, we’re not provided the courtesy of having our own counsel present, so you know it’s--"
At that point Jackson interrupted and attempted to fact-check Short. While talking over the guest, she aggressively declared, "You had all those opportunities on the House side. The White House chose not to take those opportunities. Just to be real clear on the facts."
When Short got a chance to speak again he corrected the record, "Hallie, to be real clear on the facts. We were not provided those opportunities in depositions. We were not provided those opportunities in the Intelligence Committee in the House, they brought forward these charges. Then when they sent to it the Judiciary after they reached their conclusion, they provided that opportunity, but it was not when they were doing their initial testimony."
Short finished his thoughts by pointing out Democratic hypocrisy, which is also media hypocrisy, regarding the idea that the Democratic-led House doesn't need to hear from people like Mulvaney or Bolton because they have enough facts, but if the Republican-led Senate doesn't hear from them, then it's an unfair, partisan trial devoid of facts. He rightly pointed out, "It's real interesting to see them now have concerns about process. That’s kind of rich to say now say we have concerns about process when they totally ran a sham investigation and railroaded this through to now say, we would be concerned if there weren't witnesses in the Senate. That's quite an irony."
Here is a transcript for the December 17 show:
MSNBC
MSNBC Live with Hallie Jackson10:52 AM ET
HALLIE JACKSON: Senator Schumer says if Mick Mulvaney, John Bolton don't testify, it sounds like a coverup, but I’m paraphrasing here. Does he have a point?
MARC SHORT: No, the point here Hallie, is that this has been a charade. It was star chamber environment in which this administration was not provided the ability to bring forth any witnesses, we were not provided to see the evidence they presented, we’re not able to provide our own evidence, we’re not provided the courtesy of having our own counsel present, so you know it’s--
JACKSON: You had all those opportunities on the House side. The White House chose not to take those opportunities. Just to be real clear on the facts.
SHORT: No. No, we did not. No, we did not. Hallie. Hallie, to be real clear on the facts. We were not provided those opportunities in depositions. We were not provided those opportunities in the Intelligence Committee in the House, they brought forward these charges. Then when they sent to it the Judiciary after they reached their conclusion, they provided that opportunity, but it was not when they were doing their initial testimony and it's real interesting to see them now have concerns about process. That’s kind of rich to say now say we have concerns about process when they totally ran a sham investigation and railroaded this through to now say, we would be concerned if there weren't witnesses in the Senate. That's quite an irony.
