>> the washington center holds a seminar on the 2020 election and g.o.p. politics. watch live wednesday morning at 9:00 eastern on c span 3. online at c-span.org. or listen live on the free -span radio app. >> our live campaign 2020 coverage continues thursday at 7:00 p.m. eastern with president donald trump in toledo, ohio, at a keep america great rally. watch live on c-span2, on demand at c-span.org or listen on the go with the free c-span radio app. >> earlier today senate party leaders held their weekly news conferences and commented on the impeachment process against president trump. here are their remarks, starting with senate majority leader mitch mcconnell.

senator mcconnell: hello, everyone. happy new year. i think some of you have already written this but i wanted to make sure you understood that we have the votes once the impeachment trial has begun to pass a resolution essentially the same, very similar to the 100-0 vote in the clinton trial which sets up as you may recall what could best be described as maybe a phase one which would include obviously the arguments from the prosecution, arguments from the defense, and then a period of written questions because remember senators are not allowed to speak during the impeachment trial. basically written questions submitted to either the prosecution or defense through the chief justice. at that point, during the clinton trial, the issue of the

appropriateness of calling witnesses was addressed. obviously that is the most contentious part of one of those proceedings. and that'll be addressed at that time and not before the trial begins. with regard to getting the papers, it is a rule of impeachment in the senate that we must receive the papers. it continues to be my hope that the speaker will send them on over. the house argued that this was an emergency. they needed to act quickly. if the president -- that the president was such, apparently, from their point of view, such a cage to the country that they needed to rush this through. and then they sat on the papers now for three weeks. i hope that'll end this week. i understand there's considerable discomfort among senate democrats, some of them expressing that to some of you over the continued delay in

sending it on over. i wanted to touch on a couple of other things. there was some discussion in the st few days related to the iraq episode that we're experiencing now about the appropriateness of targets. i want to associate myself with the secretary of defense, secretary of state with regard to the appropriateness of cultural sites. being targeted. that is not appropriate. as many of you have already written, and i've been pretty open about it, according to secretary of state to run for the u.s. senate, he's made a decision that i think clearly under the circumstances is best for the country to continue to serve in that role. i think clearly under these circumstances he made the right decision. that should not, however, lead to any excess observations on

the part of the other side that kansas, which hasn't elected a democratic senator since 1932, ill do it in 2020. >> we are all looking forward tomorrow to hearing from the administration about the situation in the middle east and iraq and iran and i think that it's fair to say that irrespective of what people think about the geopolitics and some of the decisions and discussions there that soleimani was somebody who needed to be eliminated. and i -- and make no mistake about it, he was a terrorist. he was responsible for killing hundreds of americans and terrorizing that region of the world for many, many years. we're anxious to hear about what the administration's process was in terms of that decision and to hear about what perhaps may come next. with respect to impeach 789, as

the leader pointed out, the senate is ready to do its job. we're just waiting for the house to send the articles. i think the fact that they haven't says that this process is all about the politics of their base. what you're seeing speaker pelosi and chuck schumer do right now, i think, is basically lay play to their base and play political games. if it was -- if there was such a sense of urgency surrounding this they would have sent it over here by now. when they do, as the leader pointed out, republicans are prepared to take it up and follow the precedent set in the clinton impeachment which i think is a fair process which allows both sides to have a day in court to make arguments, for senators to ask questions, and then for any additional information to be voted upon. i look forward to moving forward with that process, assuming again that the house decides to put aside the politics and to proceed with this process in a way that treats the president in a fair way and allows something

that he didn't get from the house of representatives and that is a fair opportunity to efend himself. >> following up with what the leader said with respect to impeachment, the speaker of the house has no role or leverage in impeachment in the senate, what she's been doing over the last three weeks is completely partisan, all political and as just announced, we do have the 51 votes necessary to move forward using the clinton model for impeachment. and the public is clearly with us in our positions there poll t this past weekend, harvard harris poll 5rk3% of americans say what speaker pelosi is doing is a political stunt. 56% say she's gone beyond her constitutional boundaries. 58% say send the articles. accept of americans say

the clinton rules. that's where we are. 58%, send the articles, national number, 77%, accept the clinton rules. there's lots going on in the world. the world continues to be a dangerous place. there's important business that this senate and this house need to do. we need to get on these things. it's time for speaker pelosi to get on with it or get out of the way. >> good afternoon, everybody. i'm proud to be joined by my colleagues, senators stabenow, america lee and van hollande. and the question looms. will senators stand up for a fair trial. a fair trial with witnesses and documents. right now, the republican leader and i have very different visions about what it means to conduct a fair trial.