Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell privately met with a key GOP swing vote on calling impeachment witnesses Wednesday morning, according to reports.

One day after telling his party that he did not have the vote to block witnesses in President Donald Trump's impeachment trial, McConnell convened with Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, The New York Times and The Hill reported.

The question of calling impeachment witnesses has been a partisan point of contention. Democrats need four senators from the 53-member Republican majority to break ranks to win the vote for calling witnesses.

McConnell has faced great pressure to corral members of his own party this week. On Sunday, the Times reported that, in a manuscript for his upcoming book, former national security adviser John Bolton says Trump told him he did not want to release military aid to Ukraine until that country promised to conduct investigations that could damage Democrats, including former Vice President Joe Biden.

Following that report, several potential Republican swing votes, including Mitt Romney of Utah and Susan Collins of Maine, indicated they would be in favor of calling Bolton to testify.

Murkowski, another possible defector, has not been as straightforward as her colleagues. The senior senator from Alaska tweeted on Monday that she has "said before I was curious what Ambassador Bolton might have to say and I'm still curious."

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It appears that McConnell may have been successful with convincing Murkowski to vote with her party. At a Senate GOP lunch meeting on Wednesday, after the two met, there was no discussion of witnesses — which some senators took as a sign that the Democrats will fail to get enough swing votes, according to The Hill.

“We’re going to get it done by Friday, hopefully,” Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., reportedly said following the meeting.

Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., also acknowledged on Wednesday that winning enough GOP votes to allow witnesses to testify was unlikely, according to the Times.

Murkowski confirmed to reporters that she had met with McConnell, but declined to discuss her current thinking on calling witnesses. She reportedly did not attend the lunch.

Murkowski has criticized McConnell over impeachment-related matters. In December 2019, she told an Anchorage-based television station that she was "disturbed" upon hearing McConnell say he would be "in total coordination with the White House counsel" on the impeachment matter.

“To me it means that we have to take that step back from being hand in glove with the defense," Murkowski said, "and so I heard what leader McConnell had said, I happened to think that that has further confused the process.”

The senators are now in the middle of a two-day period in which they can submit written questions to both sides. A vote on witnesses will likely take place on Friday.

If Republicans successfully block attempts to call witnesses, McConnell can then call for a vote to acquit Trump on the two articles of impeachment passed by the House of Representatives in December. That means the trial could be done by the end of Friday.

Analysis:McConnell has received campaign donations from Trump's impeachment defense team

Contact Ben Tobin at bjtobin@gannett.com and 502-582-4181 or follow on Twitter @TobinBen. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: subscribe.courier-journal.com.