House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said that Republicans aren’t making their decisions related to impeachment based on election politics, arguing instead that Democrats are pursuing impeachment “purely for political reasons.”

“You want to decide what you’re going to do based upon politics, or do you want to stand up for the Constitution?” he asked. “I would hope Republicans, if this was in a reverse order, if this was a Democrat in the White House, that they would stand for the Constitution in the same way."

He also said members learned “nothing new” during yesterday's first public impeachment hearing — although Bill Taylor’s testimony did include new information about a phone call between Trump and Sondland overheard by Taylor’s staffer, who will be deposed by lawmakers later this week.

Asked if any of the allegations against Trump are at the very least inappropriate, if not impeachable, to him, McCarthy dodged: “It is not — are we having a hearing about inappropriate, or are we having an impeachment inquiry?”

“Nothing is there that’s impeachable, and we should not be putting our country through this. We’re less than one year away from an election,” he said.