On Tuesday’s broadcast of Fox News Channel’s coverage of the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump, network anchor Chris Wallace said observed that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has “backed down” on the impeachment trial rules means upcoming votes to hear from witnesses is more likely to succeed.
Wallace said, “They originally, in the McConnell motion, said that all the evidence developed in the House impeachment effort was not going to automatically be admitted. Now it is going to be admitted, and then it can be challenged. Why did they make this change at the very last minute? Because clearly, there were four Republicans senators — at least four — who were concerned about it. Who said, ‘Why do we have to rush? Why do we have to do this until 1 in the morning? It makes us look bad. Why are we saying with all the evidence that they have accumulated in the House is not admissible right at the start?’ So I think it’s fair to assume that the only reason that Mitch McConnell backed down — and he did back down, which is very rare for him— is because at least in his early procedural motion there were at least four senators, four Republican senators who said, ‘Let’s soften this a little bit.'”
He continued, “It does indicate that the whole question of witnesses is more up for grabs than many of us thought. Because it would seem to indicate that some moderate senators— we can guess who it was in the lunch, people like Susan Collins, Mitt Romney, maybe Lamar Alexander, a couple of others are expressing some concerns.”
He added, “Just remember, Mitch McConnell is the majority leader, but if he doesn’t have a majority if the Democrats stand firm with 47 and then get four Republicans to jump over on a much more consequential issue like calling witnesses then it’s Chuck Schumer who is really the majority leader.”
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