If Impeachment Comes to the Senate, Mitch McConnell Has Some Wiggle Room

Even as Democrats in the House pursue an impeachment inquiry into his dealings with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, President Donald Trump has doubled down on his attacks, using Twitter to go after his perceived political rivals as well as the members of Congress investigating him. Trump’s actions suggest he has no fear of being removed from office—as well he shouldn’t. So far, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and his GOP have proved an almost indestructible firewall against attacks on the president and his agenda.

While McConnell has called it “laughable” to claim that Trump committed an impeachable offense, he’s also taken a few careful steps to insulate his caucus against a possible reversal. “If this is the ‘launching point’ for House Democrats’ impeachment process,” he said in a statement to Politico, “they’ve already overplayed their hand.” But he also told CNBC he’d have “no choice” under Senate rules but to take up impeachment articles and stopped short of blessing Trump’s conduct. In recent weeks he’s ordered a bipartisan Senate intelligence investigation, backed a resolution written by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer demanding that the administration turn over the then-secret whistleblower report, and announced he’d been privately pushing the administration to release aid to Ukraine that had been held up before Trump’s phone call with that country’s president.