“If he does, I don’t know if he can remain a leader,” said a Republican senator who said several of his colleagues had similar views and asked not to be named discussing sensitive internal policies.
Other Republican senators were equally blunt.
“No, no, no,” Senator Ron Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican and Trump’s ally, told CNN, when asked if he could support McConnell if he voted to condemn Trump, calling such a vote a “dangerous precedent” and adding, “I don’t even think that we should have a trial. “
“The mafia was fed with lies,” said McConnell on Tuesday. “They were provoked by the president and other powerful people. And they tried to use fear and violence to prevent a specific procedure from the first branch of the federal government that they did not like. But we continue ”.
After 10 House Republicans broke through the ranks to join each Democrat in Trump’s impeachment last week on charges of inciting an insurrection, several Republican senators are taking a similar stance to McConnell – saying they are really undecided and will listen to the arguments – – a key sign that they may well be influenced by the position that the GOP leader finally takes.
McConnell, who has aligned himself with Trump’s agenda for the past four years and was responsible for helping him reshape the federal judiciary and the Supreme Court, has had little interaction with Trump in recent weeks, after the former president has grown increasingly isolated by his efforts to overturn the elections.
Republicans who know McConnell well believe that he will take the temperature of the Senate Republican Party Conference and, ultimately, make a decision based in part on the opinions of his colleagues and the mood of the country when it comes time to vote.
And some Trump supporters say that if McConnell and at least 16 of his Republican colleagues join 50 Democrats to condemn the former president, they will see a major backlash from the party base that will frustrate their hopes of winning back the majority in the Senate next year. .
“What’s good about accusing a guy in Florida?” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Trump friend who spoke at length with the former president the night before Biden took office. “I think if any kind of Republican leader who embraces this is doing a lot of damage to the party.”
Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, argued that the Republican Party needs Trump on its side to succeed next year.
“For the party to move forward, we have to move the party with Donald Trump,” Graham said in an interview. “There is no way to be a successful Republican Party without having President Trump working with all of us and all of us working with him. This is just a fact. And I think we have a decent chance of returning in 2022. But we can’t do that without the president. ”
Not everyone agrees – and some Republicans are clearly signaling that they are ready to prevent Trump from seeking office again after convicting him at trial.
“These illegal actions cannot go without consequences,” said Senator Lisa Murkowski, an Alaskan Republican, of Trump’s actions.
McConnell’s office declined to comment. But the GOP leader’s closest allies insist that it is unclear where he is going.
Texas Republican Senator John Cornyn, a member of the Republican party leadership team, said he did not believe McConnell had made a decision on how he would vote for the conviction.
“He said several times in my audience that he really didn’t make up his mind and that he would wait to see what is presented,” said Cornyn of the Republican Party leader.
Senator Mitt Romney, the Utah Republican who was the only Republican senator who voted to condemn Trump in 2020, said McConnell said to his colleagues, “You should vote for your conscience”, adding that the Republican leader “did not try at all any pressure on people to go one way or the other. ”
“We are asked to apply impartial justice,” said Romney. “We are not asked to apply impartial justice unless it harms your party. Therefore, my responsibility and I believe that each of us is to do what we swear under oath to do. And the consequences of that are difficult to predict.”
Other Republicans are looking for firmer ground – including Senator Ted Cruz, the Texas Republican who led the failed effort to topple Biden’s Arizona election victory on January 6.
“I don’t think we should focus on the Democrats’ political retribution,” Cruz said when asked about McConnell keeping the option of condemning Trump open.
Rookie Senator Tommy Tuberville, an Alabama Republican who, like Cruz, voted to nullify Biden’s victories in Arizona and Pennsylvania after the riot, argued that the Republican Party needed to remain united during the trial.
“I am not in favor of the trial,” said Tuberville. “Are you going to accuse a guy who’s not even in town anymore?”
Asked what it would mean for the party if Republicans joined Democrats to condemn Trump, Tuberville said, “It wouldn’t be good. The whole thing is about a team, and if you start to separate the team, then it just destroys you. “
While many Republican senators are undecided, it is clear that McConnell’s vote remains the most influential.
Senator Kevin Cramer, a Republican from North Dakota, said many Republican senators “will be influenced by him and will ask for his guidance”.
But he ruled out that McConnell’s vote would have a major impact on the party’s electoral prospects.
“The party will not be defined by its vote,” said Cramer. “In the states, people will judge based on the senator’s votes. Not the senior senator from Kentucky.”
Ali Zaslav and Lauren Koenig of CNN contributed to this report.