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There are at least four Republican senators running for reelection in 2020 who would probably much rather not have to defend Donald Trump on the campaign trail: Susan Collins in Maine, Joni Ernst in Iowa, Cory Gardner in Colorado, and Thom Tillis in North Carolina. A Republican strategist who has worked for a Republican president and a number of presidential candidates, Juleanna Glover, has some advice for them: Demand a secret ballot for the impeachment vote in the Senate.
There are also three Republican senators who are retiring after the 2020 election: Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, Mike Enzi of Wyoming, and Pat Roberts of Kansas. Another, Johnny Isakson of Georgia, is out as of Dec. 31, 2019. So there's another four who have absolutely nothing to lose. They and one or two others, such as Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, might be willing to provide their vulnerable colleagues some cover. Among these eight or so, it would only take three to force a secret vote in the impeachment trial rules the Senate will decide on. "Article I, Section 3, of the Constitution does not set many parameters for the trial, except to say that 'the Chief Justice shall preside,' and 'no Person shall be convicted without the Concurrence of two thirds of the Members present,'" Glover writes. The vice president doesn't have a vote in the case of impeachment rules, which require a simple majority of 51 to be adopted; and there are just 53 Republican senators.
Retired never-Trumper Sen. Jeff Flake has opined, "I heard someone say if there were a private vote [on impeachment in the Senate] there would be 30 Republican votes. That's not true. There would be at least 35." The someone who said there would be 30 votes is Republican strategist Mike Murphy, who says he heard it directly from a Republican senator. "One Republican senator told me if it was a secret vote, 30 Republican senators would vote to impeach Trump," he told Andrea Mitchell on MSNBC.
Glover is not a disinterested party here. She's looking out for future Republicans and employment opportunities, writing that the threat of a secret ballot in the Senate trial could convince Trump to resign, and that "if Trump were to leave office before the end of the year, there might even be enough time for Republicans to have a vibrant primary fight, resulting in a principled Republican as the nominee." But she makes a good argument, one even McConnell should consider: Keeping his Senate majority would be easier with the burden of Trump lifted.
Good luck, however, getting the likes of Collins or Tillis or Gardner to stick their necks out on this.
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