Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), critiqued Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s plan to coordinate with the White House for President Donald Trump’s upcoming impeachment trial, noting that there should be some distance between the Senate and the White House during the process.
“In fairness, when I heard that I was disturbed,” Murkowski told KTUU. “To me it means that we have to take that step back from being hand in glove with the defense, and so [when] I heard what leader McConnell had said, I happened to think that that has further confused the process.”
McConnell brought attention to his plan in a recent interview with Fox News‘ Sean Hannity saying, “We’ll be working through this process, hopefully in a fairly short period of time [be] in total coordination with the White House counsel’s office and the people who are representing the president as well as the Senate,” according to CBS.
However, despite her criticisms of McConnell, Murkowski claims that the House of Representatives’ rushed impeachment inquiry left gaps that the Senate will have to fill, such as ensuring that acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney and former national security adviser John Bolton are called forward to testify.
“If the House truly believed that they had information that was going to be important, they subpoena them and if they ignore the subpoena as they did at the direction of the White House, then that next step is to go to the courts,” Murkowski added.
Murkowski is undecided on how she’ll vote, wanting to hear all the evidence. However, she is considered a key swing vote, known for standing against her party on key issues, such as being the sole GOP senator to vote “no” on Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination.
