Senate Republicans plan to ignore impeachment hearings – POLITICO

As top diplomats William Taylor and George Kent prepare to appear before the House in the first public phase of the inquiry, few senators said they had plans to watch most of the testimony on Wednesday.

And though Democrats and a handful of Republicans said they would try to play catch-up if they couldn’t monitor in real time, a significant portion of the Senate GOP said they have no plans to watch at all.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said he’s going to “be paying attention to what we’re doing in the Senate.” Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming, the No. 3 GOP…