Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. is rejecting Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. and the Democrats’ push for fresh witnesses against President Donald Trump and making a last-ditch plea for them to “turn back from the cliff” of Wednesday’s expected vote to send the case to the Senate for trial.
McConnell’s remarks Tuesday effectively slapped the door shut on negotiations for a deal proposed by Schumer, who wants to call top White House officials for the Senate trial, which is set to start next year if the House impeaches Trump this week.
“If House Democrats’ case is this deficient, this thin, the answer is not for the judge and jury to cure it here in the Senate,” McConnell said. “The answer is that the House should not impeach on this basis in the first place.″
Schumer’s proposal was the first overture in what were expected to be negotiations between the two leaders over the contours of a weeks-long trial. Trump wants a more showy proceeding to not only acquit but vindicate him of the impeachment charges from the House, though he has instructed officials not to appear in the House.
McConnell and most GOP senators prefer a swift trial to move on from impeachment. Many centrist House Democrats have begun to signal that they, too, are ready to vote and move on.
The Democrats’ impeachment of the president was on track toward a starkly partisan roll call Wednesday. No Republicans were breaking with the president, and almost all Democrats were expected to approve the charges against him.
The House Rules Committee was meeting Tuesday in what was expected to be a marathon session to set the parameters for Wednesday’s debate.
Americans are not fooled, Trump tweeted on Tuesday, by the “Scams and Witch Hunts, as phony as they are, just never seem to end.”
As the House prepared for Wednesday’s vote, a handful of Democrats are expected to break ranks as Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. marches toward a vote she hoped to avoid having Democrats take on their own.
One freshman Democrat, Rep. Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey, said he would vote against impeachment and indicated he was switching parties to become a Republican. Another Democrat, Rep. Collin Peterson, a Minnesota centrist, had not decided how he will vote, his spokeswoman said.
As the House was detailing its case against the nation’s 45th president, attention was turning to the Senate where the top Democrat, Schumer of New York, called anew for fresh evidence and testimony from key White House officials for the Senate impeachment trial.
In a letter to McConnell, Schumer proposed hearing testimony from former national security adviser Bolton, acting White House chief of staff Mulvaney and two others as part of a detailed offer he made to Republicans as an opening offer for negotiations.
Several Senate Republicans rejected that idea late Monday, saying the House should have gone to court to force those witnesses to testify over the White House’s objections if Democrats wanted to hear from them.
McConnell is facing criticism from the mainstream media for saying he’s taking his “cues” from the White House for the expected trial.
Republicans say Schumer acted much the same two decades ago when the Senate prepared to vote on convicted President Bill Clinton.
Now, 20 years later, turnabout is fair play.
The Associated Press contributed to this article