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Byrne: Hunter Biden should be ‘very first name’ on impeachment trial witness list

Congressman Bradley Byrne (AL-01) on Wednesday took to the U.S. House of Representatives floor, implying Democrats will regret demanding that Senate Republicans bring in more witnesses for President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial than the House interviewed during its impeachment inquiry.

While speaking on the floor, Byrne stood next to a poster showing a picture of former Vice President Joe Biden, Hunter Biden and Devon Archer on a golf outing.

Archer served as a board member along with Hunter Biden at Burisma, a Ukraine energy company. Trump’s interactions with the Ukrainian president regarding potential wrongdoing by the Bidens related to Hunter’s foreign business dealings in the country are at the center of the impeachment case.

Democrats, including Senator Doug Jones (D-AL), have been calling on Senate Republicans in the majority to hold an impeachment trial featuring witnesses not heard from by the House. Jones in an op-ed recently named names he wants to hear from and has especially harped on the importance of former Trump administration National Security Advisor John Bolton testifying.

Jones stated, “The evidence we do have may be sufficient to make a judgment, but it is clearly incomplete.”

“There are four witnesses who could help fill those gaps: the president’s former national security adviser, his acting chief of staff, the senior adviser to his acting chief of staff and a top national security official in the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Each has direct knowledge regarding the charges against the president and should testify under oath at a Senate trial,” he added.

However, Jones has supported the original impeachment whistleblower remaining secret and not having to testify in the Senate. The whistleblower did not testify in the House process.

RELATED: Jones doubles down on keeping whistleblower secret: ‘People’s lives could be in jeopardy’

Additionally, while Jones has maintained in recent months that the Bidens do not need to be investigated for Hunter’s foreign business dealings, Byrne has consistently called for increased scrutiny on the Biden family. Byrne even recently introduced a House resolution directing three House committees to begin investigating Hunter Biden’s business dealings during his father’s tenure as vice president.

That trend continued in Byrne’s Wednesday floor speech.

“After a long, embarrassing month, the House will finally transmit the articles of impeachment against President Trump to the United States Senate,” Byrne remarked. “Yet, I understand Speaker Pelosi and her managers will continue to push for witnesses in the Senate trial because, in their words, they want the facts.”

Referencing the poster, he continued, “That claim is nonsense! House Democrats blocked the testimony of the whistleblower, DNC staffer Alexandra Chalupa, Nellie Ohr with Fusion GPS, and of course the two gentlemen pictured to my left, Devon Archer and Hunter Biden!”

“I remind my friends in the majority, what’s good for the goose is good for the gander. I predict House Democrats will not fare as well blocking these witnesses in Mitch McConnell’s Senate,” Byrne added.

In a statement to Yellowhammer News later in the day, Byrne emphasized that if Democrats want more witnesses during the Senate impeachment trial, Republicans should oblige by calling Hunter Biden to the stand.

“If Democrats are going to demand all these witnesses, then Republicans should do the same and the very first name on the list should be Hunter Biden,” Byrne said.

“Democrats have manufactured this entire conspiracy to overturn the results of the 2016 election, but they ignore the blatant corruption with the Biden family. If they want answers, let’s start with Hunter Biden,” he concluded.

Byrne is running in Alabama’s crowded GOP Senate primary field. Along with former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, former Auburn University head football coach Tommy Tuberville, former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore and State Rep. Arnold Mooney (R-Indian Springs), Byrne is vying to face Jones in the November general election.

Jones has endorsed Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign, defending him at controversial moments throughout this campaign cycle, including on “senior moments,” when Biden came under fire for remarks about former segregationist Democratic senators and deeming sexual misconduct allegations against Biden as distractions from beating Trump.

Jones has vowed to back whomever the Democrats ultimately nominate against Trump in 2020, no matter how radical that individual is.

Sean Ross is the editor of Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @sean_yhn

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