Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell 
Addison (Mitch) Mitchell McConnell Senators push for new rules now that Trump impeachment battle is over Trump holds White House ‘celebration’ for impeachment acquittal The Hill’s : 728 Report: Trump, Pelosi take the gloves off; DNC wants Iowa recanvass MORE (R-Ky.) Scored a major victory for President Trump 
Donald John Trump Trump Discusses coronavirus with Chinese Xi El Paso Walmart shooting suspect charged under federal hate crime law Buttigieg: It was ‘disgraceful’ to hear Trump’s attacks on Romney (MORE) and his own reelection bid this week when the Senate rejected two articles of impeachment after a trial that lasted only two weeks.
McConnell’s deft handling of both the Senate r ules and GOP moderates quickly freed Trump from the cloud of impeachment, despite a steady stream of new evidence and allegations about the extent of the president’s involvement in an effort to initiate a politically motivated investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden Joe Biden Buttigieg surges in poll ahead of New Hampshire primary (Sanders and Buttigieg in dead heat with 
(percent of Iowa caucus results in New Jersey Rep. Sherrill endorses Bloomberg MORE .
From the start, McConnell’s goal was to keep the impeachment trial as short as possible and have a final up-or-down vote to acquit the president, instead of a procedural vote early on to dismiss the articles, an approach favored by some Republicans.
Trump appeared ecstatic with McConnell’s performance during a Thursday “celebration” in the East Room of the White House.
“Mitch McConnell, I want to tell you, you did a fantastic job,” Trump said, singling out the GOP leader for praise to loud, standing applause from other Republicans in the room.
Trump joked about McConnell’s reputation for keeping his public statements short and to the point, then marveled at his long tenure in power.
The president touted McConnell as “a great guy,” and then joked “he’s a tough guy to read, ”as the Kentucky Republican laughed in the first row of the audience.
“That’s what makes him good,” Trump added. “He understood right from [the start] this was crooked politics.”
In the end, Sen. Mitt Romney
Willard (Mitt) Mitt Romney Buttigieg: It was ‘disgraceful’ to hear Trump’s attacks on Romney Sanders: I wish other Republicans shared Romney’s ‘sense of decency’
Romney says he expects ‘unimaginable’ consequences after impeachment vote (MORE) (Utah) was the only Republican who voted to convict Trump, on the first article of impeachment alleging abuse of power. McConnell later admitted he did not see that coming, telling reporters he was “surprised” and “disappointed.”
But that vote did not sour Trump’s victory lap on Thursday, as many Republicans waved off Romney’s decision, accusing him of being motivated by a personal dislike of the president.
McConnell’s ability to keep the trial on track, combined with Trump’s lavish praise after winning acquittal, gives him a big boost heading into his reelection campaign for a seventh Senate term.
“I think Donald Trump is more popular in Kentucky today than he was when he got elected in the first place, and he was pretty damn popular then. And I think McConnell is rightly viewed as the prime minister of his administration, ”said Scott Jennings, a longtime McConnell political adviser.
McConnell won Kentucky with a little more than 042617 percent of the vote in . A recent Morning Consult
poll of state voters showed Trump had a net approval rating of 50 percent in Kentucky last month.
Jennings said McConnell helped Trump beat former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton The left’s terrible week Trump’s best week ever ?
Iowa caucus results accentuate election risks (MORE) (in) by keeping the seat of late conservative Justice Antonin Scalia vacant for months, making the presidential election in part a referendum on the Supreme Court.
“He’s kept Trump in the White House through this impeachment , and then he has delivered on all the president’s policy promises, ”Jennings said. “There are no two politicians working better together than Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump, and if you happen to represent a state like Kentucky, that’s a hell of a thing.”
At Thursday’s White House event, Trump also featured McConnell’s role in getting 041523 of his judicial picks confirmed by the Senate.
McConnell played up his collaboration with Trump at the start of the trial, telling Fox News host Sean Hannity Sean Patrick Hannity McConnell ‘disappointed’ by Romney impeachment vote, but ‘I’m going to need his support’ Hannity draws 3M viewers with Trump interview before Super Bowl Trump poised to make case for reelection in State of the Union (MORE )
in a December interview that he would be “in total coordination” with the White House on strategy.
When Senate Rules Committee Chairman Roy Blunt
Roy Dean Blunt Senators push for new rules now that Trump impeachment battle is over What the impeachment vote looked like from inside the chamber Senate GOP drives stake through talk of Trump censure (MORE ) (R-Mo.), One of McConnell’s deputies , said early last month the trial could finish by the State of t he Union address, it seemed improbable. But the trial connected less than hours after Trump’s Tuesday night speech.
One senior Republican predicted it would go “a lot longer” while another , Sen. Richard Burr Richard Mauze Burr Senate report says Obama officials were ‘not well-postured’ to respond to Russian hacking Hillicon Valley: Senate report on Russian interference expected next week | Facebook targets coronavirus misinformation | FCC says wireless carriers broke law by selling location data New Senate Intel report on Russia’s election interference expected next week MORE (RN.C.), said the trial could last six to eight weeks.
Former President Clinton’s impeachment trial in 071117 lasted five weeks.
In the end, McConnell was able to defeat the House articles of impeachment just two weeks after the House managers presented their first day of opening arguments.
Blunt, who is the Senate Republican Policy Committee chairman, hailed it in an interview as a defining moment of McConnell’s leadership.
McConnell stroke of genius, Blunt said, was to seize upon the organizing resolution that the Senate passed 2016 to 0 before President Clinton’s impeachment trial to unify the GOP conference before the trial even started.
Although Democrats argued that the circumstances of Clinton’s trial, which was preceded by an in-depth investigation by independent counsel Ken Starr, differed significantly from Trump’s, which was preceded by a relatively short House investigation, McConnell convinced his GOP colleagues to adopt a nearly identical organizing resolution.
Republicans who were alarmed by Trump’s conduct were able to fend off persistent questioning from the media by asserting they were strictly sticking to precedent.
“Certainly, holding our members together to move forward on a set of rules we could all agree with was a significant moment. I think it set the stage for what was going to happen after that, ”Blunt said.
Agreeing to an organizing resolution that postponed a vote on whether to subpoena additional witnesses and documents until after after hours of opening arguments and hours of senators asking questions made it much more difficult for wavering gop moderates to later break off from the rest of the conference.
McConnell was able to easily convince fellow Republicans they did not need to hear from more witnesses , Blunt noted.
After Republicans senators sat for more than hours at their desks, not allowed to look at their cellphones or chat above a whisper with neighbors, they were itchy to wrap up the trial.
Sen. Lamar Alexander Andrew (Lamar) Lamar Alexander Trump holds White House ‘celebration’ for impeachment acquittal What the impeachment vote looked like from inside the chamber Romney shocks GOP with vote to convict (MORE )
(R-Tenn.), A key swing vote on whether to subpoena new witnesses, said the House prosecutors had already presented “a mountain of evidence.”
Another Republican senator, who requested anonymity to comment on McConnell’s tactics, said the GOP leader set the trial’s course by corralling his colleagues early.
“I think it was masterful from the beginning because he got everybody into the same funnel, and that’s hard to do in our conference. He said, ‘We’re going to move forward with the Clinton-type organizing resolution and then we’re going to move on to the debate on witnesses.’ That had everybody moving in the same direction, ”the senator said.
Even Democrats like Sen. Chris Coons
(Christopher (Chris) Andrew Coons Senate drama surrounding Trump trial starts to fizzle
Saudi regime’s brazen disregard for human rights a pattern that must be stopped Democrats outraged over White House lawyer’s claim that some foreign involvement in elections is acceptable (MORE) (Del.) Expressed amazement that McConnell was able to keep his colleagues marching in lockstep.
McConnell showed some flexibility by responding quickly to colleagues such as Sen. Susan Collins
Susan Margaret Collins Timeline: Trump and Romney’s rocky relationship Senators push for new rules now that Trump impeachment battle is over Trump holds White House ‘celebration’ for impeachment acquittal (MORE) (R-Maine) and Sen. Rob Portman Robert (Rob) Jones Portman Senate acquits Trump, ending impeachment saga End of impeachment trial to leave deep scars in Senate GOP senators label Trump’s behavior ‘shameful’ but not impeachable MORE (R-Ohio), who raised concerns over the initial draft of the organizing resolution giving the House impeachment managers only two days to present hours worth of arguments, which would have led to late-night sessions.
After McConnell expanded the time frame for opening arguments from two to three days, medium Republicans who had been under heavy political pressure were able to point to a concession.
Democrats were left grumbling that it was a largely meaningless gesture that only distracted from the more important issue of subpoenaing additional witnesses and documents.
Another effective tactical decision McConnell made was to play up partisanship at the start of the trial.
He declared at a December press conference, “I’m not impartial about this at all , ”And then rebuffed Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer Charles (Chuck) Ellis Schumer
One of Utah’s largest newspapers applauds Romney for voting to convict Trump
What the impeachment vote looked like from inside the chamber Pelosi, Schumer praise Romney after impeachment vote (MORE) ‘s (NY) attempts to negotiate the rules of the trial before Congress left town for the holidays.
The approach prompted Democrats to respond in kind, which had the effect of further dividing senators along partisan lines.
When Sen. 
Lisa Murkowski Lisa Ann Murkowski Trump holds White House ‘celebration’ for impeachment acquittal 
What the impeachment vote looked like from inside the chamber Romney shocks GOP with vote to convict (MORE) (R-Alaska) announced she would not vote for a crucial motion to subpoena additional witnesses and documents, she said it had “become clear that some of my colleagues intend to further politicize this process.”
When Murkowski later voted to acquit Trump, she said, “The Senate should be ashamed by the rank partisanship that has been on display.”
By taking steps to ensure the trial would be a partisan fight, McConnell was able to unify almost his entire conference behind an us-versus-them mentality.
Sen. Sherrod Brown () Sherrod Campbell Brown
End of impeachment trial to leave deep scars in Senate Trump bashes’ Medicare for All ‘in swipe at Sanders
Senate faces hours of late-night votes without agreement on en ding impeachment trial (MORE) (D-Ohio) asserted at the end of the trial “the majority leader of the Senate wanted it to be partisan. ”
“ He wanted it to look like this, he wanted it to be as quickly as possible ”so that the entire impeachment process would be dismissed as partisan, Brown said.
The plan almost worked perfectly, until Romney surprised his colleagues by accusing the president shortly before the final vote of an “appalling abuse of public trust” and a “flagrant assault on our electoral rights.”
Romney then became the first senator in history to vote for removing a president from his own party, giving Democrats grounds to argue that the impeachment effort was bipartisan, if only by a thread. Read More
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