The impeachment process against Donald Trump took a substantial step forward Tuesday, as the House Intelligence Committee voted to send its damning impeachment report to the House Judiciary Committee, which will draft articles of impeachment. But while the process has so far been a Democratic-dominated affair—no Republicans on the Intelligence Committee voted to advance the report—Republicans may soon be the ones calling the shots. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell suggested Tuesday that when impeachment makes its way to the Senate for a trial, he's prepared to let his slim GOP majority take the reins on setting the rules.

McConnell told reporters Tuesday that he’s preparing a “back-up plan” for figuring out the Senate rules, in case he's not able to strike a bipartisan deal with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on how to structure the proceedings. And that plan, apparently, is to try and cut Democrats out entirely. “The first thing Sen. Schumer and I will do is see if there’s a possibility of agreement on a procedure,” McConnell said. “That failing, I would probably come back to my own members and say: ‘OK, can 51 of us agree how we’re going to handle this?’” The Majority Leader added that he wasn’t sure if he’d prefer a bipartisan deal or working solely with Republicans, telling reporters, “it would depend on what we would agree to.” Should both the bipartisan and partisan negotiations fail to figure out the trial procedure, the task would fall to Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, who will be presiding over the trial. Roberts would submit motions to the Senate about the procedure, which could then be passed with 51 votes.

McConnell's potential decision to force the impeachment procedure through with only Republican support would stand in stark contrast to former President Bill Clinton's impeachment trial, in which a bipartisan compromise on the trial rules passed in a vote of 100-0. (The Senate leader is said to be otherwise planning to model the proceedings on Clinton’s five-week-long trial, the Washington Post reported in November.) Schumer, for his part, hopes McConnell’s partisan contingency plan won’t come to pass. “The best way to do something that’s important and almost as hallowed a procedure as this, is in a bipartisan way, so I hope that Leader McConnell will make every effort to come up with a bipartisan solution working with me. I’m certainly willing to work with him,” Schumer told Politico.

This isn't the first time that McConnell and his GOP cronies have raised the specter of inserting partisan politics into the impeachment trial, as Republicans have previously suggested they’re open to scheduling the trial in a way that would specifically inconvenience the Democratic senators running for president. Ultimately, however, McConnell has acknowledged that planning for the likely Senate trial—given that the House still hasn’t drafted or voted on articles of impeachment—is still in the earliest stages, and most aspects remain an open question: “There is no answer at this point,” he said Tuesday.

Before impeachment makes its way to the Senate, of course, the proceedings will first pass through the House Judiciary Committee. And as the committee’s work kicks off Wednesday with a public hearing, House Republicans have warned that the committee’s GOP members, which include high-profile agitators like Rep. Matt Gaetz, will make their presence known. “It’s a bunch of brawlers sometimes on the Judiciary Committee, so it should get pretty hot under the collar as we go along,” Republican committee member Rep. Andy Biggs said Sunday on Fox News. “It should be much more feisty, I would say, than the Intel Committee was.” While the impeachment process is still in the House, though, Democrats will be running the show—and committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler has said he’s not going to put up with any theatrics. According to Politico, Nadler held a closed-door prep session Tuesday with Democratic committee members, in which he bluntly signaled his intention to keep control. “I’m not going to take any shit,” Nadler told his colleagues.

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