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.) on Tuesday dismissed out of hand a proposal from Senate 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.) to consider the question of additional witnesses and documents later in 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’s impeachment trial.

Schumer said the crucial question of whether the Senate should subpoena key witnesses should be decided at the start of the trial and not be delayed while the House impeachment managers and Trump’s legal defense team spend a couple of weeks laying out their arguments on the floor.

Democrats want to call on acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney Mick MulvaneyOn The Money: House panel pulls Powell into partisan battles | New York considers hiking taxes on the rich | Treasury: Trump's payroll tax deferral won't hurt Social Security Blockchain trade group names Mick Mulvaney to board Mick Mulvaney to start hedge fund MORE and former national security adviser John Bolton John BoltonJudge appears skeptical of Bolton's defense of publishing book without White House approval Maximum pressure is keeping US troops in Iraq and Syria Woodward book trails Bolton, Mary Trump in first-week sales MORE to testify and obtain sensitive documents the White House has withheld.

ADVERTISEMENT

“The key issues here are witnesses and documents. We should decide those from the very beginning. In fact, many in my caucus have already voiced a fear that Mitch McConnell will ... just set up how many hours each side has to discuss things and then shut things down before we get witnesses,” Schumer said.

“We should decide witnesses and documents from the beginning and not put it off. They are the most important decisions we must make,” he added.

McConnell, however, rejected Schumer’s proposed approach earlier in the day when he noted that the resolution that launched former President Clinton's 1999 impeachment trial did not address the testimony of additional witnesses.

“What Sen. Schumer is asking for now is not the procedure that we agreed to in the Clinton impeachment,” he said, noting that the first resolution of the Clinton impeachment trial merely laid out how much time the impeachment managers and president’s defense team would have to make their arguments and how much time senators would get to ask questions.

“At that point, they dealt with the second question resolution dealing with the witness issue,” he added, noting that it takes only 51 votes to pass a motion during a Senate trial related to witnesses or additional documentation.

ADVERTISEMENT

The GOP leader said he was optimistic about getting a deal with Schumer as long as the charged issue of witnesses is deferred.

“I’m optimistic we can agree on phase one. It’s pretty obvious we’re likely to disagree on phase two, and we’ll see at that point whether there are 51 members of the Senate who want to take one of two directions, either going in the direction of the witnesses or going in the direction of voting on the articles of impeachment,” McConnell said.

Schumer subsequently rejected that plan.

“Leader McConnell talked about a bifurcation. ‘Let’s do the early, easy stuff first.’ No,” he said.