WASHINGTON – Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Monday the Senate would have "no choice" but to hold a trial on whether to remove President Donald Trump from office if the House votes to put forward articles of impeachment.

The Kentucky Republican told CNBC that the obligation to hold a trial is part of Senate rules, and it would take a two-thirds vote of the chamber to change that.

"I would have no choice but to take it up, based on a Senate rule on impeachment," McConnell said.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced an impeachment inquiry last week over whether Trump improperly pressured Ukraine to investigate his political rival Joe Biden.

Trump denied exerting any pressure or doing anything improper.

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It would take a simple majority of the House (218 votes) to submit articles of impeachment to the Senate. Impeachment would be akin to an indictment in a court proceeding. A trial would then be held in the Senate where it would take at least two-thirds (or 67 votes) to convict Trump and remove him from office. The chief justice of the Supreme Court would preside over the trial.

House lawmakers would act as prosecutors and senators as the jury for a trial. How long a trial might take is unclear. The Senate would have to pass a resolution setting up the ground rules of a trial. As majority leader, McConnell would have some latitude in shaping those rules, as well as determining the timing of the trial.

"So I would have no choice but to take it up," McConnell said. "How long you're on it is a whole different matter."

When the House impeached President Bill Clinton more than two decades ago, the Senate trial began about three weeks after the House acted. After a five-week trial, the GOP-led Senate acquitted Clinton.

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After the acquittal, Clinton finished the remaining 11 months of his term.