How the Senate Impeachment Trial Should End

Playbook: “The chamber will gavel in around 1 p.m., and they will move to four hours of debate on whether to call witnesses or request new documents. That motion will come to a vote around 5 p.m. to 6 p.m.”

“If the witness vote fails, there will be a bit of discussion, then a vote on whether to proceed to the final vote. That motion is amendable, so Democrats might want to try to force some tough votes. (There’s some question about moving to closed session to debate the verdict, but many Republicans we’ve spoken to do not seem interested in that.) Then, once they get past the motion to go to a final vote, they’ll proceed to the final vote.”

“Senators we spoke to Thursday predicted this could go as late as 3 or 4 a.m. Saturday morning.”

Caveat: “Things in the Capitol always seem to go off the rails. Maybe it’s because we’ve been through the wildest 1,105 days in the modern history of Washington. Maybe it’s because Republicans have a razor-thin margin in the Senate. Maybe it’s because we’re all just skeptics and doubters by nature. Doesn’t it just seem like we are due one more twist in this trial?”