Missouri's Sen. Roy Blunt, one of the Senate's highest-ranking members, is the epitome of a mainstream Republican today — which is what makes his recent comments about impeachment so disturbing. On CNN's "State of the Union" Sunday, Blunt, who will stand as one of the 100 jurors in President Donald Trump's Senate trial, dismissed the notion that it's actually a trial at all and declared that he's already decided there are no grounds for Trump's removal.

Blunt made those comments even as it was revealed the White House ordered aid to Ukraine held up just 91 minutes after Trump's infamous July 25 phone call with Ukraine's president, and told the Defense Department to keep it quiet. The revelation adds to the substantial body of evidence gathered in the House impeachment investigations that Trump was, in fact, attempting to use that aid to leverage foreign election interference for his own benefit.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has already announced plainly that he's "not an impartial juror," and other prominent Republicans have echoed him. With that backdrop, Blunt's comments Sunday aren't some new bombshell but rather a depressing confirmation that he had no intention to conduct this trial in good faith.

"It's not a trial in any classic sense," Blunt said Sunday. "It is a political decision to do it. And at the end of the day, every single member of the Senate has considerations that are pretty obvious."

No one realistically suggests that political considerations can be completely separated from senators' decisions here, but those shouldn't be the only considerations. Yet Blunt, like so many of his colleagues, has already concluded: "I don't think they came close to making the case."

The hazards of drawing such conclusions before the trial even begins were made clear by another weekend development: Documents obtained by the Center for Public Integrity prove the damning timing between the July phone call in which Trump demanded the "favor" of a politically advantageous investigation from Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, and White House confirmation of aid suspension minutes later.

This is the very kind of new information that senators should be looking at. But all indications are that Mitch "not an impartial juror" McConnell doesn't intend to allow consideration of any additional evidence. The evidence already presented against Trump is overwhelming, even though there would be far more if the White House hadn't obstructed congressional efforts to access it.

The Constitution is clear that McConnell, Blunt and their Senate colleagues are supposed to withhold judgment until they have impartially considered all the evidence in a Senate trial. They literally will have to swear an oath to that effect before the trial starts — an oath too many of them are openly violating before they even take it.

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