Former National Security Advisor John Bolton's name may not have made it onto the Senate floor until the final hours of the president's defense arguments Monday, but he's on everyone's minds ahead of the final day of defense.
"I'd like to hear from John Bolton," Senator Mitt Romney (R-Utah) told Cheddar when asked about the new Republican plan which, from the sounds of it, might be gaining steam in the Senate hallways today. Senators James Lankford (R-Okla.) suggested senators should be able to read Bolton's bombshell manuscript in a classified setting, though Democrats like Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, have criticized that idea as "absurd" since the book will be published next month.
"We should see it, but that's no substitute for taking an oath. A manuscript isn't done under oath. And it also isn't a substitute for being cross-examined," Senator Tim Kaine (D-Va.) told Cheddar. "As the White House counsel says, cross-examination is the greatest engine for the discovery of truth. They've said it now twice. So we should examine and cross-examine."
Although Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) initially appeared to support Lankford's suggestion, he later clarified his tweeted remarks to reporters.
"Apparently [Bolton's manuscript] is in a classified setting now. I'm just suggesting if it's in a classified setting now, let's look at it in that setting," Graham told reporters on his way to the Senate floor on Tuesday afternoon. "This was Senator Lankford's idea, it makes perfect sense to me. I don't know if that's achievable but that would be a solution to the problem."
