U.S. Senator Roy Blunt made a visit to Park University to tour the school’s Global Warrior Center.
After the tour of the room inside the Thompson Commons, Blunt took questions from the media, but only one of the eight asked had to do with the program — Valor Medals Review conducted at Park’s George S. Robb Centre for the Study of the Great War.
Most of the questions pitched toward Blunt regarded the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump.
Blunt, when asked by KMBC’s Michael Mahoney if he had seen the memo the White House had issued about the phone call with Ukraine president, said he hadn’t.
He did say he understood the allegations being brought against Trump.
Blunt
“My thought about that is I’m on the committee with 15 people in the Senate that have been asked to look into this and I think we will do it different than the open hearing the House had yesterday (Thursday) where the chairman is making up things that might have been said on the phone call,” said Blunt, the senior senator for Missouri. “My view of this is not much. We need to pursue information that is out there and try to understand it and then reach a conclusion.
“That is different than my colleagues that haven’t been asked to do that and can have whatever conclusion they can have. My job is to help assembly the information and then evaluate what it means rather than try to evaluate what it means before we know what it means. I will reach a conclusion after looking at the material and talk to the principals involved rather than reach a conclusion now and then talk to people.”
Blunt noted the day prior to his arrival in Parkville he met with the acting national director of intelligence and the inspector general for intelligence.
Blunt stated there was a number of a reasons for concern about the information that has been released, noting whistleblowers needed to be encouraged and protected. He did add the second-hand information was concerning and why wasn’t the ‘whistle’ blown sooner before the alleged information was shared.
The Republican from Southwest Missouri said it is likely that the impeachment proceedings against Trump would pass through the house on a ‘very partisan basis’ and it would be up for the Senate to review the information. He wasn’t sure of a time line on how fast things would happen given how recentluythe news came out before his visit to Park.
“The house has been looking for any reason to impeach the president, probably since election day itself,” Blunt said of his Democratic colleagues. “Certainly since the majority in the house changed.”
Blunt said he wasn’t sure if he needs to know what is said in a private conversation between the president and foreign leaders.
“I don’t need to know what he says to the president of Mexico, I might need to know what he said to the Ukraine president, but we will see about that,” Blunt said. “There has been way too many conversations shared by other people during this presidency and that is no question a bad way to move forward.”
Prior to the media blitz on impeachment, Blunt met with students at the Global Warrior Center and got gifts from Park president Dr. Greg Gunderson. Among those was a handmade pen made by Gunderson out of wood from the deck of the U.S.S. Missouri.
Blunt and Sen. Chris Van Hollen from Maryland introduced the World War I Valor Medals Review Act in April. Students at Park started a project in August 2018 to look at awarding medals posthumously to minority soldiers.
Blunt noted that of the 120 Medals of Honor that have been awarded from WWI, only seven have been to minority soldiers.
“That doesn’t appear to reflect the people that were serving in the conflicts,” Blunt said of the medal discrpency. “Great work is being done by Park and hopefully some family members might remember a great-great grandfather or a great-great uncle and still be around to see the recognition.”