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President Donald Trump's impeachment trial is likely to start after Joe Biden's inauguration, and the Republican leader, Mitch McConnell, is telling senators their decision on whether to convict the outgoing president over the Capitol riot will be a "vote of conscience."

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For Republican senators, the trial will be a perhaps final test of their loyalty to the defeated president, and his legions of supporters in their states back home, and their own experiences sheltering at the Capitol as a pro-Trump mob ransacked the building, disrupting the tally of Electoral College votes and attempting to overturn Biden's election. It will force a further re-evaluation of their relationship with the defeated president, who lost not only the White House but majority control of the Senate.

"These men weren't drunks who got rowdy — they were terrorists attacking this country's constitutionally-mandated transfer of power," said Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., in a statement Friday.

"They failed, but they came dangerously close to starting a bloody constitutional crisis. They must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."

McConnell, who has spent the past days talking to senators and donors, is telling them the decision on whether or not to convict Trump is theirs alone — meaning the leadership team will not work to hold senators in line one way or the other.

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"vote of conscience."

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Originally posted by Nina:

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"vote of conscience."

We're doomed. I don't think a lot of his supporters can be seen in mirrors.