Mitch McConnell may have just given Nancy Pelosi a strategic opening in the impeachment standoff

Mitch McConnell.
(Image credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) says he has the votes he needs, but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) may still have the leverage.

McConnell announced Tuesday that Republican senators have enough votes to launch President Trump's impeachment trial without an agreement on witnesses with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and his Democratic colleagues.

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Tim O'Donnell

Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.