Then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) played a major role during then-President Donald Trump’s first impeachment trial, working behind the scenes to save him from being convicted by the Senate.
Before Trump’s impeachment trial in January 2020, McConnell worked to convince swing vote Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) to vote against calling more witnesses, according to the forthcoming book Unchecked: The Untold Story Behind Congress’s Botched Impeachments of Donald Trump. Tensions were high between the two Senate Republicans, and McConnell reportedly sought to use his influence to help sway the former president’s chances of survival in his first impeachment trial, in which he faced charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
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“McConnell never threatened. He never bullied. And though he often left her space to follow her own intuition, he was an expert at laying the guilt on thick and backing her into a corner,” wrote journalists Rachael Bade and Karoun Demirjian.
The procedural Senate vote to call more witnesses needed only a simple majority to pass. Sens. Mitt Romney (R-UT) and Susan Collins (R-ME) were both expected to vote with Democrats, making Murkowski a key swing vote because if she also voted yes, the final tally would land at 50-50, throwing the decision to Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts. McConnell knew Murkowski had a deep respect for Roberts and the courts, and he tried to use that to his advantage, according to the book.
“The most consequential vote during this impeachment is not about whether to convict or acquit,” McConnell told Murkowski, according to the book. “It’s about how to vote on witnesses — and what position that will put the courts in. If you don’t want to do this for the presidency, if you don’t want to do it for the Senate, if you don’t want to do this for 2020 colleagues, do it to save the courts.”
At the time, Murkowski came out publicly in December 2019 to say she “was disturbed” by McConnell’s coordination with the White House on the impeachment trial. This made tensions worse between the two, but they later rectified relations when the Senate returned from recess in January. McConnell is now backing Murkowski in her reelection challenge from Trump-backed Kelly Tshibaka.
Murkowski ultimately decided to vote against calling more witnesses, arguing neither side had a legitimate argument.
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“Republicans were too afraid to actually check this president, and Democrats didn’t really care about putting him away — just about getting impeachment over with and using it to do maximum damage to the GOP in the 2020 election,” Murkowski concluded, according to the book. “Because of that, she thought sourly, Trump would get away with everything. And she had no choice but to be complicit.”
Unchecked: The Untold Story Behind Congress’s Botched Impeachments of Donald Trump is set to go on sale Oct. 18.
