JUST IN: Mitch McConnell Reportedly Telling GOP Senators Impeachment Conviction of Trump Is a Vote of Conscience

Photo credit: Drew Angerer, Getty Images.

The Senate’s top Republican will not whip his caucus to vote against the conviction of former President Donald Trump for inciting the Capitol insurrection.

That’s according to Bloomberg, which reported late on Tuesday night that McConnell is signaling to Senate Republicans that he will not be holding them to uniform opposition of the incitement of insurrection charge against Trump. That would free GOP Senators to vote to convict — as a handful of them, like Sens. Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Mitt Romney are strongly leaning — without any fear of punishment within the conference. It could also remove pressure from some Senate Republicans who have, so far, voted against the constitutionality of the trial.

The Kentucky Republican has also suggested that he hasn’t made up his mind how he’ll vote, two of the people said, even though he voted Tuesday to declare it unconstitutional for the Senate to hear the case against a former president.

In the weeks following the violent Capitol insurrection, McConnell offered a stinging indictment of Trump and others who pushed the conspiracies fueling the attack, saying “the mob was fed lies.” News reports also put the odds of McConnell personally voting to convict Trump for his role in inciting the attack on Congress at 50/50.

However, even if McConnell were to join with the full Democratic caucus, House Impeachment Managers would still need to wrangle at least a dozen more GOP Senators beyond the five or six who have strongly suggested they favor impeachment to reach the two thirds-majority threshold needed to convict, a highly improbable outcome.