FILE PHOTO: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) speaks to the media after the weekly policy luncheons on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., December 3, 2019. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on Monday that Republicans were not opposed to hearing witnesses in the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump.
“We haven’t ruled out witnesses,” McConnell said in an interview with “Fox & Friends.” “We’ve said, ‘Let’s handle this case just like we did with President Clinton.’ Fair is fair.”
In that 1999 trial, he said, senators went through opening arguments, had a written question period and then decided what witnesses to call based on that.
McConnell and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer failed to reach an agreement on Thursday on Schumer’s demand that witnesses testify at the trial, which McConnell said would be the Republican-led Senate’s first order of business in the new year.
“We remain at an impasse on these logistics,” McConnell said on Thursday.
Reporting by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Toby Chopra and Steve Orlofsky