McConnell Says  No Choice on Senate Vote: Impeachment Update

President Donald Trump unleashed a torrent of tweets over the weekend attacking Democrats and demanding to meet the whistle-blower who said the president asked Ukraine’s president to dig up political dirt on Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.

According To Iran News

The president is portraying himself as the victim, the subject of two partisan “witch hunts” to oust him, and urging his loyal base to punish his opponents at the polls.

Here are the latest developments:

McConnell Says No Choice  on Senate Vote (11:49 a.m.)

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said the GOP-led Senate won’t maneuver for a way to avoid a trial of charges against Trump if the House approves articles of impeachment against him.

Speaking on CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” McConnell said Senate rules require the Senate to take up House-approved articles of impeachment that are presented. He has no interest in trying to change the rules, and he said it would take 67 votes to do it. That would be a tall order in a chamber that Republicans control with just 53 votes.

“I would have no choice but to take it up,” McConnell said. “How long you’re on it is a whole different matter.”

GOP Senators Ask DOJ for Details on Biden, Democrats (11:39 a.m.)

Two senior Republicans are asking the Justice Department for information about Joe Biden’s interactions with Ukrainian officials and whether Ukraine worked with Democrats to get damaging information on President Donald Trump’s election campaign.

Senate Finance Chairman Chuck Grassley and Homeland Security Chairman Ron Johnson made the request as Trump and his allies try to turn the tables on an investigation by House Democrats into allegations that the president pressured Ukraine’s leader to investigate Biden, one of his chief political rivals.

As Democrats begin an official impeachment inquiry into Trump, the president has raised discredited claims about Biden’s involvement in stopping a probe into his son’s work in Ukraine and allegations that the Democratic Party in 2016 worked with Ukrainian officials to discover ties between Trump, his former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who is now in prison, and Russian figures.

“Ukrainian efforts, abetted by a U.S. political party, to interfere in the 2016 election should not be ignored. Such allegations of corruption deserve due scrutiny, and the American people have a right to know when foreign forces attempt to undermine our democratic processes,” the senators wrote in a letter to Attorney General William Barr. — Joe Sobczyk

Flake Calls on GOP to Abandon Trump (11:15 a.m.)

Former GOP Senator Jeff Flake urged his former colleagues to stand up to Trump and condemn his behavior as wrong in an op-ed published in the Washington Post.

Flake wrote that impeachment is divisive and presents a tough decision for senators who could have to vote on whether to remove the president from office if the House votes to impeach him. Flake said impeachment “now seems inevitable,” and the resulting division in the country could end up benefiting Trump politically.

However, should Trump survive the impeachment inquiry, Flake said it should be an easy decision for Republicans to decide not to support him for re-election in 2020. Flake said he decided not to run for re-election in 2018 because he could not stand behind Trump in the way that many GOP voters now demand of their elected representatives.

“My fellow Republicans, it is time to risk your careers in favor of your principles,” Flake wrote. “Trust me when I say that you can go elsewhere for a job. But you cannot go elsewhere for a soul.” — Anna Edgerton