Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) denounced the House impeachment as “unfair” on Thursday, saying that it “risks deeply damaging the institutions of American government.” The top Senate Republican said on the Senate floor that the Democratic-controlled House “has let its partisan rage at this particular president create a toxic new precedent that will echo well into the future.” In a nod to Trump and his supporters, he said, “moments like this are why the United States Senate exists.” The House impeached Trump on Wednesday evening on charges of abusing his power and obstructing Congress based on his pressure campaign on Ukraine to dig up dirt on his political rivals as he withheld crucial military aid from the country. McConnell clung to a popular argument by GOP members that the articles failed to meet the constitutional standard of high crimes and misdemeanors required for Trump’s impeachment, which he called “the most rushed, least thorough, and most unfair impeachment inquiry in modern history.”

A trial in the Republican-controlled Senate—which will require a two-thirds majority to convict and remove the president from office—is likely to end in acquittal of the charges against Trump. In response to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s refusal late Wednesday to announce when she would send the impeachment articles to the Senate for a trial, McConnell said she was afraid to send “their shoddy work product to the Senate.”