Washington (CNN) Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is arguing against witnesses giving testimony in the expected impeachment trial of President Donald Trump -- but he had a different view in 1999 when he advocated for a request by Republican House impeachment managers to have witnesses testify in the case against then-President Bill Clinton, a Democrat.

"There have been 15 impeachments in the history of the country. Two of them were cut short by resignations. In the other 13 impeachments there were witnesses," he told CNN's Larry King Live on January 28, 1999, as the Clinton trial played out in the Senate. The number included judges who were charged with impeachment.

"It's not unusual to have a witness in a trial. It's certainly not unusual to have witness in an impeachment trial," McConnell said at the time.

He added: " The House managers have only asked for three witnesses. I think that's pretty modest."

But McConnell opposes witnesses now that Trump is up for impeachment. The Senate majority leader is pressing for a short trial and a vote on the articles of impeachment sometime soon after the trial gets underway.

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