Mitch McConnell’s Impeachment Witness Comments Come Back To Haunt Him
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has made every effort to block witnesses from the impeachment proceedings in the Senate to protect President Donald Trump.
But newly resurfaced comments from the impeachment of then-President Bill Clinton show that McConnell once favored calling witnesses.
“Had my vote prevailed, there would’ve been live witnesses,” he said in 1999 footage resurfaced by CNN.
NEW: In a clip we found in the CNN archives, Mitch McConnell in Feb. 1999 said on Crossfire he supported "whatever the House managers wanted in terms of putting on their trial" including "live witnesses."
"I voted for live witnesses myself," he added.https://t.co/LX9MMH9jjvpic.twitter.com/FNB3mqZMbx— andrew kaczynski (@KFILE) January 22, 2020
Making the footage even more awkward in retrospect, McConnell slammed Democrats by saying they had decided to clear Clinton before the proceedings even began.
“There were no open minds on the Democratic side in this trial,” he said.
But now, McConnell is guilty of doing just that himself.
“I’m not an impartial juror,” he declared last month.
McConnell also seemed quite deferential to the wishes of House impeachment managers in 1999, offering to give them what they wanted to put on the trial:
"I would have been prepared to vote for whatever the House managers wanted in terms of putting on their trial," McConnell said..."My view was that we were entitled to witnesses."https://t.co/LX9MMH9jjvpic.twitter.com/OXuPvcVIE6
— andrew kaczynski (@KFILE) January 22, 2020