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AP Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell speaks with reporters after walking off the Senate floor last week.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Monday defended his plans for the upcoming impeachment trial of President Donald Trump, saying he would follow the same rules used during the 1999 trial of President Bill Clinton.
“Let’s handle this case just like we did with President Clinton — fair is fair,” McConnell said, in an interview on the Fox News program “Fox and Friends.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said this weekend that he wants Michael Duffey, a senior official in the White House budget office, to testify in the impeachment trial. On Monday, Schumer followed up with a request that emails and other internal White House records be turned over as part of the proceedings.
Read: Schumer says OMB official must testify in impeachment trial
McConnell said the Clinton trial got underway with an opening statement followed by written questions. Only then did the Senate move to “partisan” votes on whether witnesses should be called. “We haven’t ruled out witnesses,” McConnell said.
In 1999, the Senate “didn’t let the partisan part of it keep us from getting started,” he said.
Republicans now have the votes to block any witnesses. In the Clinton case, the Republican majority voted over the objection of Democrats to hear from some witnesses.
House Democrats approved two articles of impeachment last week against Trump for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
McConnell said it was “absurd” that Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi won’t send the impeachment papers to the Senate until she was satisfied with the rules of the trial. “We can’t do anything until the speaker sends the paper over. So, everybody enjoy the holidays,” McConnell said.
