Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday said that he has not discussed President Trump’s phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. “We have not had any conversations on this subject,” he told reporters. McConnell’s statement diverges from Trump’s previous claim that the pair had discussed the call. Earlier this month, Trump said that McConnell assured him the phone call was “innocent” and “perfect.” When asked if Trump was lying, McConnell told reporters to talk to the president. “You’d have to ask him. I don’t recall any conversations with the president about that phone call,” he said. 

At the same press conference, McConnell refused to defend Trump’s assertion that the impeachment inquiry is akin to a “lynching.” “Given the history in our country I would not compare this to a lynching. That was an unfortunate choice of words,” he said. McConnell then added, “it is an unfair process, and a better way to characterize it would be to call it an unfair process.”