Article snippet: The toxic relationship between Senate Majority Leader MORE’s impeachment trial. The leaders already have scars from the battles over MORE to the Supreme Court in 2016, among other controversies. So perhaps it should not be surprising that talks on rules for the trial are off to a rocky start. “The problem is the core of the relationship between him and Schumer,” said one Republican senator close to McConnell. “Their history is bad.” McConnell blasted Schumer’s vision for the trial on Tuesday as “dead wrong.” After waiting a full day to respond to his counterpart’s demands for witnesses, McConnell went to the Senate floor on Tuesday and essentially ruled it out. “If the Senate volunteers ourselves to do House Democrats’ homework for them, we will only incentivize an endless stream of dubious partisan impeachments in the future,” he scoffed. Schumer on Sunday had made public a letter he sent to McConnell over the week asking for the witnesses, including acting White House chief of staff MORE. The public campaign was a clear effort to raise pressure on McConnell, who had angered Democrats with comments on Fox News the previous week that he was coordinating his impeachment strategy with Trump. On Tuesday, McConnell said the only deal he’s optimistic about striking with Schumer would be one that laid out time for arguments. Senators who participated in former President Clinton’s 1999 impeachment trial say the relationship between then-Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Mis... Link to the full article to read more