Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said on Monday that he cannot envision any scenario in which the Republican-controlled Senate would vote to remove President Donald Trump from office.
“I can’t imagine a scenario under which President Trump would be removed from office with 67 votes in the Senate," McConnell was quoted by The Hill as having told reporters in Kentucky,
Rebuking House Democrats for "Trump derangement syndrome," he also argued that the impeachment effort would take up time that the Senate should be using for important legislative business.
"Nothing is happening because House Democrats seized with Trump derangement syndrome are consumed with this argument with the president," McConnell said.
Republicans, including McConnell, have slammed the House impeachment process, arguing that the president has not been allowed to defend himself in the inquiry.
“They have denied President Trump basic due process and are cutting his counsel out of the process in an unprecedented way. House Democrats' new resolution does not change any of that,” McConnell said late last month.
On Sunday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that Trump is welcome to testify before the Intelligence Committee that is leading the impeachment inquiry against him.
“The president could come right before the committee and talk, speak all the truth that he wants if he wants -- if he wants to take the oath of office or he could do it in writing. He has every opportunity to present his case,” Pelosi told CBS’s “Face the Nation”.
The impeachment proceedings against Trump were launched by the Democrats in the wake of the President’s controversial conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in which he allegedly threatened to withhold aid to Ukraine unless its government investigated actions by former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter.