McConnell: No new impeachment witnesses for Trump’s trial

US Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is rejecting the Democrats’ push for fresh impeachment testimony against President Donald Trump and making a last-ditch plea for them to “turn back from the cliff” of Wednesday’s expected vote to send the case to the Senate for trial.

McConnell’s remarks Tuesday effectively slapped the door shut on negotiations for a deal proposed by the Democratic leader, Sen. Chuck Schumer, who wants to call top White House officials for the Senate trial, which is set to start next year if the House impeaches Trump this week.

“If House Democrats’ case is this deficient, this thin, the answer is not for the judge and jury to cure it here in the Senate,” McConnell says. “The answer is that the House should not impeach on this basis in the first place.”

Schumer’s proposal was the first overture in what were expected to be negotiations between the two leaders over the contours of a weeks-long trial. Trump wants a more showy proceeding to not only acquit, but vindicate him of the impeachment charges from the House.

McConnell and most GOP senators prefer a swift trial to move on from impeachment. Many centrist Democrats have begun to signal that they, too, are ready to vote and move on.

House Democrats are to vote Wednesday to impeach Trump, formally accusing him of abusing his power as president in dealing with Ukraine to help himself politically and then obstructing Congress by blocking the later investigation.

— AP