foreign relations comm senate
=<div>
</div><div>=</div><div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.8; color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Cabin, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">few Republican senators had very bad weeks back home due to their absolute refusal to answer a very simple question: Is it okay for a president to ask a foreign leader to produce dirt on a political rival? Sens. <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/10/10/1891546/-Meet-Trump-s-second-biggest-protector-after-McConnell-Foreign-Relations-chair-Jim-Risch" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 191, 165); transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Jim Risch</a> of Idaho, <a title="" href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/10/10/1891567/-The-simple-question-Republicans-won-t-answer-Is-asking-foreign-leaders-to-investigate-rivals-okay" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 191, 165); transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Cory Gardner of Colorado, and Joni Ernst</a> of Iowa all went to great lengths to avoid answering that hypothetical.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.8; color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Cabin, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Risch made the <a href="https://www.ktvb.com/article/news/politics/idaho-sen-jim-risch-walks-out-of-interview-with-boise-state-public-radio-news-reporter/277-9a16904e-7efc-4235-abc6-683a33605634" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 191, 165); transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">top story</a> on the evening news with his continued <a href="https://twitter.com/CynthiaSewell/status/1182331344296108034" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 191, 165); transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">stonewalling</a> of the state’s largest newspaper, generally <a href="https://twitter.com/KTVBBrian/status/1182306476762619907" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 191, 165); transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">angering</a> all of the Idaho press for his refusal to answer the question first posed by Boise Public Radio reporter Heath Druzin. “As the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, do you think it’s appropriate that the president asked?” Risch refused to answer and walked away, earning the condemnation of plenty of Idaho reporters who have long and difficult experience with the famously nasty and usually absent Risch. As Druzin shared with the KTVB TV reporter: “Since reporters here in Idaho don’t get many opportunities for an in-person interview with the senator, he wanted to cover relevant topics.”</p><div class="alt_ad_block story-page-in-content-graph-2" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Cabin, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="teadsNative" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><div class="teads-adCall" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><div id="story_page_incontent_p2_target" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><div style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; height: 15px;" /></div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.8; color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Cabin, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Gardner isn’t <a href="https://www.canoncitydailyrecord.com/2019/10/10/cory-gardner-impeachment-trump/amp/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 191, 165); transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">coming off any better</a> in the local Colorado press for his performance this week after he “repeatedly declined to say Thursday whether President Donald Trump’s call with a Ukrainian president was appropriate, weeks after that call set off an impeachment inquiry in Congress.”</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.8; color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Cabin, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The <em style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Canon City Daily Record</em> noted that he “at times sound[ed] exasperated by the repeated questions about impeachment.” It also noted that he “did not directly answer a question about whether he would accept foreign support in his closely watched 2020 Senate race.” That doesn’t seem like it would be a particularly difficult question for any senator to answer, but even that was too much for Gardner to commit to.</p><div class="alt_ad_block story-page-in-content-graph-4" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Cabin, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div id="lightbox-inline-form-b00052c7-64de-4049-944f-8160479112fb" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /></div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.8; color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Cabin, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The Iowa Starting Line flipped the question <a href="https://iowastartingline.com/2019/10/11/what-if-russia-interfered-in-joni-ernsts-reelection/" target="_blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 191, 165); transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">for Ernst</a>.</p></div><div>===</div>