McConnell blocked by his own party from calling impeachment witnesses Trump wants for Senate trial: report

According to a report from the New York Times, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is finding his hands tied by members of his own party who are skeptical over the appropriateness of calling some of the witnesses Donald Trump  -- and a few of his House Republican enablers  -- want to appear.

As the Times notes, "While Democrats who control the House are focused on a swift impeachment vote by year’s end, the White House is almost entirely consumed by the trial that would follow in the Republican-controlled Senate, where Mr. Trump’s team believes he would have the chance to defend himself and where Democrats would almost certainly fall short of the two-thirds vote they would need to remove him from office."

However, Republicans -- who have been hamstrung by White House infighting over impeachment strategy -- are uncertain what road they want to go down, and  a few are balking on voting for some witnesses to appear despite the GOP majority.

That, in turn, takes one of Trump's defenses out of the hands of McConnell.

Saying the impeachment trial is "full of unknowns," the Times reports that Texas Senator Ted Cruz (R) admitted not everyone in the GOP caucus is on the same page.

"At a meeting with senior White House officials and senators in the Roosevelt Room of the White House almost three weeks ago, Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, made clear that there are not enough Senate votes to approve some of the edgier witnesses that Democrats and Republicans want to call," the report states. "While he mentioned no names, it was interpreted by those in the room to refer to people like Hunter Biden, the son of the former vice president, whom Mr. Trump pushed Ukraine to investigate."

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