‘Partisan rage’ led to Trump’s impeachment, Kentucky’s McConnell says on Senate floor

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell called President Donald Trump’s historic impeachment the “most rushed, least thorough and most unfair” in modern history.

The Kentucky Republican said on the Senate floor Thursday morning that the House “let its partisan rage at this particular president create a toxic new precedence that will echo well into the future.”

In the historic vote Wednesday, Trump became the third president to be formally impeached by the U.S. House of Representatives. The house impeached Trump on abusing his presidential power and obstructing Congress. Every Republican member of the congress voted against impeaching Trump, while all but two Democrats chose to impeach the president.

A two-thirds vote is needed in the GOP-majority Senate for Trump to be convicted. The trial is expected to begin in January, according to the Associated Press.

The basis for impeachment was the thinnest and weakest of any presidential impeachment, McConnell said.

“Moments like this are why the United States Senate exists,” McConnell stated.

“The vote did not reflect what has been proven,” he later added. “It only reflects how they feel about the president. The Senate must put this right. We must rise to this occasion.”

McConnell said earlier in the week he’s “not an impartial juror” and he expects to have a largely partisan outcome when the Senate votes, NPR reported.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said after the vote it was a “great day for the Constitution of the United States, a sad one for America that the president’s reckless activities necessitated us having to introduce articles of impeachment.”

The decision to impeach Trump was made well before Wednesday, McConnell stated.

“It was the pre-determined end of a partisan crusade that began before President Trump was nominated, let alone sworn in,” he said on the Senate floor.

This story was originally published December 19, 2019 at 10:00 AM.