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A Republican senator, John Kennedy has said there are virtually no substantive rules for impeachment as he avoided criticizing Mitch McConnell for pledging to coordinate with Donald Trump in the impending Senate trial. Kennedy is a senator for Louisiana and he was asked by CNN’s Jake Tapper if he was disturbed by McConnell’s pledge, as Republican senator Lisa Murkowski said she was earlier this week. He replied by arguing both McConnell and Murkowski are entitled to their opinions due to there is a relative lack of precedents for conducting an impeachment trial. Kennedy said, “What you’ll see is that when it comes to impeachment, the rule is there are virtually no substantive rules. It’s not a criminal trial, the Senate is not really a jury; it is both jury and judge. The chief justice is not the judge, he’s the presiding officer”.

Kennedy added, “There are no standards of proof, there are no rules of evidence and every senator, unless we pass a new rule by 51 votes in the U.S Senate, is entitled to approach it in his own way”. The comments from the senator come following concerns over fairness in the impending trial in the Republican-controlled U.S Senate, where Democrats fear Trump will not face sufficient scrutiny. McConnell is the Senate majority leader and said he will be working closely with the White House during the impeachment trial and will take his cues from Trump’s lawyers. His stance has provoked criticism from Murkowski. It is important that Murkowski is one of the 53 Republican senators in the chamber.

Murkowski said, “We have to take that step back from being hand in glove with the defense”. She added, “I heard what Leader McConnell had said; It happened to think that, that has further confused the process”. Each of the Senate’s 100 members will serve as jurors in the trial, once House speaker Nancy Pelosi sends the approved articles of impeachment to the chamber. The U.S Senate rules need members to swear an oath to do impartial justice according to the Constitution and laws at the start of the trial and a two-thirds majority is needed to convict a president and remove him from office.