Skip to main content
U.K. Edition
Thursday, 28 March 2024

Senate won't haggle with House on impeachment - McConnell

Duration: 02:05s 0 shares 1 views

Senate won't haggle with House on impeachment - McConnell
Senate won't haggle with House on impeachment - McConnell

U.S. Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell said on Wednesday the Senate would not haggle with the House of Representatives over procedures for President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial, adding that the Senate would make a decision on calling witnesses for the trial at the appropriate time.

Jonah Green reports.

SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) SENATOR MITCH MCCONNELL, SAYING: "There will be no haggling with the House over Senate procedure.

We will not cede our authority to try this impeachment." U.S. Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell made it clear Wednesday: the Senate would not budge over procedures for President Donald Trump's impeachment trial.

McConnell adding that the Senate would make a decision on calling witnesses for that trial at the appropriate time.

SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) SENATOR CHUCK SCHUMER, SAYING: "The American people do not want a cover-up." Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said McConnell was trying to acquit the president without a proper trial.

SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) SENATOR CHUCK SCHUMER, SAYING: "If the Senate rushes through the president's impeachment, if we actually fail to try the case, as the Constitution demands, then the true acquittal that the president craves will be unattainable." Democrats want to hear testimony from at least three White House officials and Trump's former national security adviser, John Bolton, about the president's efforts to pressure Ukraine to investigate a political rival.

Bolton this week said he’d testify if subpoenaed by the Senate.

SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) SENATOR CHUCK SCHUMER, SAYING: "No one has advanced an argument why the four eye-witnesses we've produced should not testify." Democrats have focused their efforts on persuading some moderate Republicans to call for witnesses, but according to one Senate Democratic aide had seen "no traction.” McConnell said on Tuesday he had enough support from his fellow Republicans to set the rules for Trump's impeachment trial, dealing a blow to Democrats' hopes for new witnesses against the president.

In a letter to her fellow Democrats Tuesday night, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi responded by indicating she would continue holding back the House-passed articles of impeachment from the Senate until she learns more on the Senate's plans for a trial.

Senator Lindsey Graham said the upper chamber is losing patience.

SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: "If by the end of the week she has not transmitted the articles I hope we will change the rules to start the trial without her."

You might like

Related news coverage

Advertisement