Sen. Mitch McConnell on possible impeachment trial: 'I'm not an impartial juror'

Morgan Watkins | Louisville Courier Journal

U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell frankly addressed the question of whether he'll be impartial if the U.S. House votes to impeach President Donald Trump on Wednesday and sends the matter to the Senate for an impeachment trial.

"I'm not an impartial juror," the Senate majority leader said Tuesday after a reporter asked him what his message is to Americans who might have concerns about his ability to be impartial during the anticipated Trump trial.

"This is a political process. This is not anything judicial about it," the Kentucky Republican continued.

"Impeachment is a political decision. The House made a partisan political decision to impeach," he said. "I would anticipate we will have a largely partisan outcome in the Senate. I'm not impartial about this at all."

House members convened in Washington, D.C. this morning to weigh whether to approve two articles of impeachment charging the president with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.

Pathway of the impeachment process: How it works, where we are

The abuse of power charge focuses on concerns that Trump solicited foreign interference in the 2020 election by pressuring the president of Ukraine to publicly promise to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, and his son, Hunter Biden.

The obstruction charge says Trump obstructed Congress by blocking testimony and withholding documents despite House subpoenas during the impeachment inquiry.

McConnell's comments about not being impartial on Tuesday came after a speech he made earlier that day in the Senate.

During that speech, he urged the House not to impeach Trump and criticized the investigation the chamber launched in September 2019 as the "most rushed, least thorough and most unfair impeachment inquiry in modern history."

Morgan Watkins: 502-582-4502; mwatkins@courierjournal.com; Twitter: @morganwatkins26. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: courier-journal.com/morganw.