Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer Chuck SchumerPelosi: Trump Supreme Court pick 'threatens' Affordable Care Act Will Democrats attempt to pack the Supreme Court again? Pelosi slams Trump executive order on pre-existing conditions: It 'isn't worth the paper it's signed on' MORE (D-N.Y.) and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell Addison (Mitch) Mitchell McConnellHawley warns Schumer to steer clear of Catholic-based criticisms of Barrett Senate GOP set to vote on Trump's Supreme Court pick before election Harris slams Trump's Supreme Court pick as an attempt to 'destroy the Affordable Care Act' MORE (R-Ky.) will meet Thursday afternoon for their first discussion on the rules for the impeachment trial of President Trump Donald John TrumpBiden says voters should choose who nominates Supreme Court justice Trump, Biden will not shake hands at first debate due to COVID-19 Pelosi: Trump Supreme Court pick 'threatens' Affordable Care Act MORE in the upper chamber.

Schumer told reporters on his way to a strategy meeting with Speaker Nancy Pelosi Nancy PelosiPelosi: Trump Supreme Court pick 'threatens' Affordable Care Act Sunday shows preview: Lawmakers prepare for SCOTUS confirmation hearings before election Will Democrats attempt to pack the Supreme Court again? MORE (D-Calif.) Thursday morning that he expected to meet with McConnell after lunch, when both leaders will have a chance to hash out their positions with their respective caucuses.

“I’m meeting with Speaker Pelosi now and I expect I’ll be meeting with Leader McConnell this afternoon,” he said.

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Pelosi, at the urging of Democratic colleagues, is holding the articles of impeachment passed by the House late Wednesday until McConnell agrees to the rules for the Senate trial, arguing that she doesn’t want to select the impeachment managers without knowing “the arena that we are in.”

Schumer on Thursday morning backed Pelosi’s call.

“We want a fair trial. A fair trial, to my way of thinking, involves witnesses and documents. You don’t have trials without them,” he said.

“Leader McConnell spoke for a half hour, didn’t give one reason why there shouldn’t be witnesses or documents,” he added. “This is impeachment, it’s serious. Let’s hope some other Republicans rise to the occasion.”

McConnell panned the articles of impeachment during a lengthy speech on the Senate floor earlier Thursday morning.

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“This is by far the thinnest basis for any House-passed presidential impeachment in American history. The thinnest and the weakest — and nothing else even comes close,” he said.

McConnell later scoffed at the notion that Pelosi would pressure him to agree to a rules package for the trial by holding the articles of impeachment in the House.

“It’s beyond me how the Speaker and Democratic leader in the Senate think withholding the articles of impeachment and not sending them over gives them leverage, is beyond me. Frankly, I’m not anxious to have the trial. If she thinks her case is so weak she doesn’t want to send it over, throw me into that briar patch,” he told reporters outside his office after speaking on the floor.