Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) confirmed on Monday that he wouldn’t try to change Senate rules to keep an impeachment vote off the Senate floor.
During an interview with CNBC, McConnell said he would have “no choice” but to take up a resolution if it comes from the House.
“How long you are on it is a different matter, but I would have no choice but to take it up based on a Senate rule on impeachment,” he said, adding that Senate “impeachment rules are very clear.”
McConnell then attempted to hit Democrats for taking up the impeachment inquiry ahead of an election year, saying if he were in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) shoes he “wouldn’t want to into next year’s election having it credibly said that all you did for the whole Congress was harass the President and try to remove him from office.”
There were previous reports that McConnell might attempt to change the Senate rule that require the chamber to take up an impeachment resolution if it were passed by the House.
Democrats announced an official impeachment inquiry last week, once it became clear that President Trump withheld military aid from Ukraine around the same time he had a now-infamous phone call with the Ukrainian president in which he attempted to pressure the new leader to drum up baseless allegations against former Vice President Joe Biden.
During the call, Trump asked the Ukrainian president for a “favor” just after President Volodymyr Zelensky told Trump he wanted more of a certain type of defense weapon. Trump also appeared to try to get Zelensky to help discredit special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe.
“The Senate impeachment rules are very clear.” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said that the Senate “would have to take up an impeachment resolution if it came over from the House.” https://t.co/dWMzOKXvBK pic.twitter.com/ACHy1NbEW2
— CNBC (@CNBC) September 30, 2019
