Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has not provided a definitive answer on whether he will vote to convict President Donald Trump.
He was asked by CNN if his vote on Tuesday calling the trial unconstitutional signals he will not vote to convict Trump.
“Well, the trial hasn’t started yet. And I intend to participate in that and listen to the evidence,” McConnell said.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, asked by @tedbarrettcnn if his vote with Rand Paul yesterday signals he won’t vote to convict Trump, says: “Well, the trial hasn’t started yet. And I intend to participate in that and listen to the evidence.”
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) January 27, 2021
Forty-five out of 50 Republican senators supported Sen. Rand Paul’s (R-Ky.) measure to declare the trial unconstitutional, as IJR reported.
The five Republicans who broke with the rest include Sens. Mitt Romney (Utah), Ben Sasse (Neb.), Susan Collins (Maine), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), and Pat Toomey (Pa.).
McConnell told his colleagues in a letter two weeks ago he has not decided whether he will vote to convict Trump, as IJR reported.
“While the press has been full of speculation, I have not made a final decision on how I will vote,” he wrote.
McConnell continued, “I intend to listen to the legal arguments when they are presented to the Senate.”
While he has not decided, McConnell is reportedly leaning toward voting to convict Trump.
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) told reporters she thinks “it’s extraordinarily unlikely that the president will be convicted.”
President Joe Biden said during an interview with CNN he does not believe there will be enough votes to convict Trump.
“The Senate has changed since I was there, but it hasn’t changed that much,” Biden said.
Some Republicans believe the impeachment trial will do more harm than good, including Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.).
“We have some really important things to work on. You want to really kind of bring the country together and remember once again how we can get things done. It isn’t by uniformity on all of the issues,” Rubio said during an appearance on Fox News on Sunday.
He continued, “It’s about working through a process that allows people with different points of view to debate all that and get to a solution for the country. We’re going to jump right back into what we’ve been going through for the last five years and stirring it up again with a trial and it’s just going to be bad for the country.”