Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Thursday said there is “no chance” the Senate would vote to remove President Trump from office if the Democratic-controlled House does vote to impeach him.
“The case is so darn weak coming over from the House. We all know how it’s going to end. There is no chance the president is going to be removed from office,” Mr. McConnell, Kentucky Republican, told Fox News’ Sean Hannity.
“My hope is that there won’t be a single Republican who votes for either of these articles of impeachment,” he said. “It wouldn’t surprise me if we got one or two Democrats. It looks to me over in the House, the Republicans seem to be solid and the Democrats seem to be divided.”
The Democratic-controlled House can impeach Mr. Trump on a simple majority vote, but it would take a two-thirds majority in the GOP-controlled Senate to remove him from office.
The House Judiciary Committee on Thursday was weighing articles of impeachment against Mr. Trump for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress for allegedly pressuring Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky into opening politically beneficial investigations.
Mr. McConnell said he would be coordinating with the president’s lawyers on how to proceed in a potential Senate trial.
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“So there won’t be any difference between us on how to do this,” the senator said. “Everything I do during this I’m coordinating with White House Counsel. There will be no difference between the president’s position and our position as to how to handle this to the extent that we can.”
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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