The White House and Senate Republicans reportedly agreed Thursday that a trial should be conducted if House Democrats decide to impeach President Donald Trump.
A group of top White House officials including counsel Pat Cipollone, counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner reportedly met with top Republican senators to discuss a strategy on how to move forward with impeachment, Politico first reported.
This comes as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on November 13 that the Senate cannot dismiss the articles of impeachment against Trump, meaning there will be a trial.
“I don’t think there’s any question that we have to take up the matter. The rules of impeachment are very clear, we’ll have to have a trial. My own view is that we should give people the opportunity to put the case on,” McConnell told reporters after being asked about dismissing the articles of impeachment.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican from Kentucky, speaks during a news conference at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Thursday, June 27, 2019. (Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Most Republican senators refused to rule out voting to remove Trump from office in an impeachment trial over the Ukraine scandal when contacted by the Daily Caller at the end of October. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: We Asked Every GOP Senator About Impeachment. Seven Ruled It Out.)
The Caller contacted all 53 Republican Senate offices to ask if senators would rule out voting to remove Trump from office, and received a variety of responses — seven senators explicitly rejected impeachment in their statement.
Senate Republicans do not appear to be concerned about House Democrats’ ongoing efforts to impeach Trump, with many saying even if the House were to move forward with impeachment, that there is no way the Senate would vote to impeach the president. (RELATED: Senate Republicans Are Not At All Worried About Impeachment)
The Daily Caller spoke with over ten GOP senators in mid-October, who all shared their views about House Democrats’ efforts to impeach the President. Not one senator was concerned about the impeachment process, saying they are most concerned about the Democrats’ ongoing attempts to impeach Trump based on no hard evidence.
Meanwhile, House Democrats have continued to hold open impeachment hearings throughout the week.