McConnell: 'I'm not impartial' about impeachment

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., dismissed the impeachment process against President Trump as a political rather than judicial one.

"I'm not an impartial juror. This is a political process. There's not anything judicial about it," McConnell told reporters on Tuesday. "The House made a partisan political decision to impeach. I would anticipate we will have a largely partisan outcome in the Senate. I'm not impartial about this at all."

He also said that the House impeachment process was done in a partisan fashion as well.

The comments came after McConnell rejected Democrats' request to call witnesses for the trial. Democrats had hoped to establish rules for evidence and witnesses well before a trial starts.

The majority leader denied Democrats' request Tuesday in a speech on the Senate floor. McConnell said it is not the Senate's job to build a case against the president.

"The House chose this road," McConnell said. "It is their duty to investigate. It is their duty to meet the very high bar for undoing a national election."

The speech was a response to a letter that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., sent on Sunday.

In the letter, Schumer asked McConnell to agree to a set of rules similar to those used to govern the 1999 impeachment trial of former President Bill Clinton. At the time, former Senate leaders Tom Daschle, D-S.D., and Trent Lott, R-Miss., reached a bipartisan accord on the basic schedule ahead of a trial. A second set of rules was later approved along party lines to govern the handling of witnesses and evidence.

Democrats want to call four administration officials, including former national security adviser John Bolton and acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney as witnesses.

Schumer told NPR's Morning Edition that Democrats chose that list in order to establish additional information from individuals who have not yet testified.

"These four witnesses have direct knowledge of why the aid to Ukraine was delayed," Schumer said in his letter. "We're not interested in dilatory tactics. We're not interested in introducing our own conspiracy theories. Just the facts, ma'am. And that's what these four witnesses will produce."

McConnell rejected the letter in its entirety. He said he would like to meet with Schumer directly to resume talks on the structure of a trial.

"If this [impeachment trial] ends up here in the Senate, we certainly do not need 'jurors' to start brainstorming witness lists for the prosecution and demanding to lock them in before we've even heard opening arguments," McConnell said. "I look forward to meeting with the Democratic leader very soon and getting our important conversation back on the right foot."

McConnell told reporters Tuesday afternoon that he was "optimistic" that he and Schumer could agree on the initial phase of the trial, which would include House managers and White House counsel presenting their case to senators. But on Phase 2, which would be related to witnesses, McConnell said he expects the two sides will have to disagree.

Even if McConnell and Schumer do not come to an agreement, senators can still try to call witnesses once a trial has begun. Those requests would be subject to a simple majority vote.

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