If, as expected, the House of Representatives votes to impeach Donald Trump, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will have a choice. House impeachment managers and Trump’s defense lawyer will give opening arguments and then ”It could go down the path of calling witnesses and basically having another trial or it could decide—and again, 51 members could make that decision—that they've heard enough and believe they know what would happen and could move to vote on the two articles of impeachment,” McConnell told reporters Tuesday. McConnell went on to say that “Those are the options. No decisions have been made yet,” but two Republican senators say they believe that McConnell will call witnesses and ultimately move to acquit rather than simply trying to make the issue go away by dismissing it immediately.
According to Sen. John Cornyn, it “would make more sense” to vote on the articles of impeachment themselves, with the 67-vote threshold for conviction and removal, rather than trying to dismiss, which could be blocked by 50 votes (since the vice president doesn’t get a tie-breaking vote and a tie would fail). There’s a risk to trying to “decide this on a 51-vote threshold, with the potential tie and all the recriminations that would flow from that,” Cornyn said.
Another Republican senator told CNN—anonymously, for some reason—the same thing about McConnell’s plans, that he would go for the vote that was more or less a sure thing rather than trying to make it go away more quickly at risk of failure.
The House is on track to put impeachment in the Senate’s lap, with the Judiciary Committee marking up the articles of impeachment on Thursday and a full House vote possible next week. The Senate likely wouldn’t hold its trial until after Christmas.