WASHINGTON _ President Donald Trump on Wednesday accused Democrats of resisting testimony from Carter Page, his former campaign adviser, because he "blows away" allegations they have made.
Page told the top Republican and Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee last Tuesday that he would testify as part of their probe into Russia's meddling in the 2016 presidential election. But Trump now claims the minority has changed its mind about hearing from Page.
Trump alluded to uncited "reports" in claiming "the Democrats, who have excoriated Carter Page about Russia, don't want him to testify."
Rep. Adam B. Schiff of California, the top Democrat on the House Select Intelligence Committee, had not responded to a Roll Call inquiry about whether Page will testify. On Tuesday, Page said that he learned from Schiff's committee that he "might not be immediately afforded the opportunity" to address the committee.
The president in tweets on Wednesday went on to say that this alleged change of heart by Democratic members comes because they have concluded Page "blows away their ... case against him."
Trump, referring to the FBI director he fired and the Obama administration's last CIA director, wrote that his former adviser "wants to clear his name by showing "the false or misleading testimony by James Comey, John Brennan ... "
He ended the tweets on the matter by again referring to several congressional investigations and the FBI's probe into Russia as a collective "Witch Hunt!"
Trump's latest tweet storm came a day after his press secretary, Sean Spicer, refused to answer questions about whether then-candidate and President-elect Trump knew about "back channel" communications his son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner reportedly wanted to establish before they ascended to the White House.
Notably, Spicer would neither confirm nor deny Kushner attempted to go around the outgoing Obama administration.
Trump posted the tweets just minutes before a new poll was released showing growing support among American voters for the House to start impeachment proceedings.
Forty-three percent of those surveyed by Morning Consult and Politico said they want the impeachment process against Trump to begin. That's up from the last version of the same poll, which had the figure at 38 percent. Notably, however, most voters (45 percent) do not want impeachment proceedings.
