New allegations from former National Security Advisor John Bolton in his upcoming memoir have thrown a wrench into the efforts of President Donald Trump's impeachment defense team to bypass a vote for additional witnesses.
According to Bolton, Trump told him explicitly that he wanted to withhold congressionally approved aid from Ukraine until its President announced investigations into Trump's political rivals.
At least two Republican Senators—Susan Collins of Maine and Mitt Romney of Utah—have indicated interest in having Bolton testify after these new revelations.
Fox News contributor Katie Pavlich attempted to downplay calls for Bolton to testify, claiming:
"The Senate is not the House, the House did not come with a complete case, and every impeachment beforehand, the witnesses that were called had been called in the House before being brought to the Senate. So there are questions here about the process."
But Fox News host Chris Wallace was having none of it.
Watch below.
Wallace admonished Pavlich for her disinformation, saying:
"That's not true, that's not true. They hadn't all been called in the House, and in the Clinton impeachment, they'd been called by the general independent counsel. They had not been called by the House...Before the articles were sent to the House, the grand jury material in the Clinton impeachment were handed to the House as part of the articles and given to the Senate. They were not given after the House voted for those articles. That is the difference. The process does matter.
He then further laid out the flaws in Pavlich's claim:
"The fact of the matter was is that the whistleblower information was given to the inspector general, who gave it to the Justice Department. The Justice Department decided not to investigate, and that is why it went to the House. So to say that in the Clinton investigation these people were interviewed by the House, one, they weren't. And to say it wasn't done by the Justice Department, because the Justice Department refused to carry out the investigation."
He concluded with a sharp command:
"Get your facts straight!"
It's no secret that Fox News frequently acts as a television defense for the President, minimizing developments that signal his guilt or obscuring them all together.
Wallace's insistence on facts stood out.
Sadly, many supporters of the President weren't happy at one of their own being confronted with facts.
Earlier in the day, Wallace called out Trump supporters for minimizing the Bolton allegations.
Some are speculating that Wallace's job at Fox could be in jeopardy, thanks to his outspokenness.
@realDonaldTrump/Truth Social
@realDonaldTrump/Truth Social