Wednesday, during an appearance on Hugh Hewitt’s nationally syndicated radio show, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) discussed the different aspects of the likely much-anticipated impeachment trial in the U.S. Senate.
McConnell dismissed his U.S. Senate colleagues seeking the Democratic presidential nomination questioning the procedure given his lack of impartiality.
“They were lecturing me about not being able to take an oath for impartiality?” McConnell said. “Do you think these presidential candidates are impartial? This is a political exercise. The words in the Constitution, high crimes and misdemeanors, are misleading in the sense that the founders were having a hard time describing what kind of offense would warrant impeachment.”
“The truth of the matter is impeachment is whatever a majority of the House thinks it is at any given moment,” he continued. “Fortunately, over the history of the country, we have only rarely pulled the trigger on impeachment. And I hope the fact that this weak case for impeachment doesn’t mean this is going to become routine in the future.”
The Kentucky Republican predicted that ultimately the procedure in the U.S. Senate would not take long given his colleagues’ inability not to be able to speak for an extended amount of time.
“It shouldn’t take that long,” McConnell added. “But just one thing that may make senators impatient to get it over with is under the, in an impeachment trial, they can’t speak. They have to sit there quietly and listen. This’ll be good therapy for a number of them.”
