McConnell trashed by former solicitor general: He is 'scared silly' of the trial introducing new facts

Senate Republicans, led by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), are coalescing around the strategy of rushing President Donald Trump's impeachment trial, and excluding as many witnesses as possible. According to CNN congressional reporter Manu Raju, their likely defense will be that the Senate trial is not the proper venue for fact-finding — and that the House should have pushed harder in court to compel testimony from the witnesses Senate Democrats are now demanding, like White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney.

In a comment on Twitter, former solicitor general Neal Katyal blasted this argument as "dumb" — and suggested that McConnell's only real motivation is fear that the trial will expose new evidence against the president: