Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell took a shot at the House’s handling of the articles of impeachment, saying as the Senate trial gets underway that President Trump will finally receive “some fairness.”
“Here in the Senate, the president’s lawyers will finally receive a level playing field with the House Democrats, and will finally be able to present the president’s case. Finally, some fairness,” McConnell said on the floor of the Senate.
He spoke shortly before the Senate was to take up the two House-passed articles of impeachment against Trump that were expected to launch a bruising debate over McConnell’s resolution on the rules for how it will proceed.
The Kentucky Republican said his roadmap closely aligns with how President Bill Clinton’s impeachment trial was held in 1999.
He urged Democrats to join Republicans to approve the resolution.
“I would say to my colleagues across the aisle, there is no reason why the vote on this resolution ought to be remotely partisan. There’s no reason other than base partisanship to say this particular president deserves a radically different rule book than what was good enough for a past president of your own party,” McConnell said.
“So I would urge every single senator support our resolution,” he continued.
But Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said the Senate’s duty is to try impeachment cases.
“Some Republicans have said the Senate should not go beyond the House record by calling any witnesses, but the Constitution gives the Senate the sole power to try impeachments. Not the sole power to review, not the sole power to rehash, but to try,” Schumer said on the Senate floor moments after McConnell’s comments.
“Republicans have called our request for witnesses and documents political. If seeking the truth is political, then the Republican Party is in serious trouble,” Schumer said.
McConnell said the resolution establishes four stages of the impeachment hearing.
First are opening arguments from House managers and Trump’s defense team.
When that’s completed, senators will be able to submit written questions to both legal teams through Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, who is presiding over the trial.
Fourth, senators will consider whether any additional witnesses or evidence “are necessary to evaluate whether the House case has cleared or failed to clear the high bar of overcoming the presumption of innocence and undoing a democratic election,” he said.
Calling the resolution a “fair roadmap,” McConnell said he would table any amendments to “subpoena specific witnesses or documents,” because “the Senate will decide those questions later in the trial.”