Senate Majority Leader leaning to convict Trump in impeachment trial

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has "better than a 50-50 chance" of voting to convict President Donald Trump and remove him from office, Axios reported on Tuesday night, Report states, citing Axios.

McConnell believes Trump has committed multiple impeachable offenses and is "pleased" at the idea of Trump being impeached and removed from office, The New York Times also reported on Tuesday.

The Democratic-controlled House is expected to vote on impeaching Trump on a charge of inciting an insurrection on the US Capitol on Wednesday. It would make Trump the first president in American history to be impeached twice.

McConnell thinks that Trump being impeached and then potentially convicted and ousted from office by the US Senate "will make it easier to purge him from the party," The Times said, citing people familiar with his thinking.

A vote from McConnell to convict Trump for incitement would not only represent a stunning break in the top ranks of the GOP but also give the members of McConnell's caucus more free reign to vote to convict themselves.

Trump and McConnell have reportedly not spoken since mid-December, when McConnell publicly acknowledged Trump's election loss in a December 15 speech on the Senate floor and congratulated President-elect Joe Biden on his victory. McConnell reportedly plans to never speak to Trump again over his role in inciting violence at the Capitol and his lack of leadership in responding to the insurrection. In addition to the Capitol siege, The Times said that McConnell blames Trump for Republicans losing two critical Senate seats in Georgia in the dual January 5 runoff elections, which not only cost Republicans control of the upper chamber but personally cost McConnell his job as Senate majority leader.