This is a common theme when it comes to Democrats trying to corner or destroy Trump. They fail. It blows up. Whatever they think could be something that could embarrass or destroy this administration turns out to be a nothingburger. It’s the same thing with the whole Russia-Trump collusion myth. How many bombshells did we hear about? How many turned out to be nothing? The amount of buckshot Democrats have embedded in their faces cannot be measured. Before the Trump impeachment circus ended, Senate Democrats tried to get extra witnesses into the fold. That’s not how this works. Again, there were 17 witnesses—all picked by Democrats. And they wanted more? If they wanted to go this route, they should have settled this in the House. They didn’t. You don’t get to break procedure because your case, already shoddy, didn’t move the public opinion needle with regards to booting Trump. If anything, it only helped the president who saw his approval numbers increase and pushed swing states further away from Democrats.
The one witness that Democrats wanted was former National Security Adviser John Bolton. They wanted his testimony. They thought it had something in there that could destroy Trump. And after the Senate rightfully gave Trump a total and full acquittal, after the media freaked out, and after Democrats threw a tantrum—Bolton finally says that the impeachment push was a partisan clown show and his testimony wouldn’t have helped Democrats (via Associated Press):
Former national security adviser John Bolton on Wednesday denounced the House’s impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump as ”grossly partisan” and said his testimony would not have changed Trump’s acquittal in the Senate, as he continued to stay quiet on the details of a yet-to-be-released book.
In his second public discussion this week, Bolton was on stage at Vanderbilt University with former national security adviser under President Barack Obama, Susan Rice, who questioned Bolton’s refusal to discuss more details while his book undergoes screening for possible classified national security details by the Trump administration. Bolton was likewise quiet on specifics from the book during a Monday speaking engagement at Duke University.
[…]
Bolton contended that the House “committed impeachment malpractice,” drawing some grumbling from the audience, saying “the process drove Republicans who might have voted for impeachment away because it was so partisan.” He also said he didn’t expect the Senate to vote against having him testify.
“People can argue about what I should have said and what I should have done,” Bolton said. “I would bet you a dollar right here and now, my testimony would have made no difference to the ultimate outcome.”
So, once again, another failed Democratic attempt to outmaneuver this administration. Trump won and the Democrats lost. And all this push did was give Donald Trump the largest in-kind contribution towards his 2020 re-election effort.