getting ahead of things, but here are some ways removal in the senate could actually happen:
the real bottom line is that republicans would have a *very* hard time removing donnie unless and until foxnews abandons donnie.
but there are some ways it could happen.
republican senators care almost exclusively about one thing: getting re-elected. in many cases, their state is fairly safe, so most of them are worried primarily about, well, the primaries. they don't want to piss off the 90% of republican primary voters who love donnie.
so if the senate were to delay the trial until after the primaries, that would liberate republican senators to some extent to defy donnie. by the time the next election cycle comes along, there would be so much other news that they might not pay much of a price for it.
another thing that could help is if the vote is done in private. there's nothing requiring an individual, publicized vote. obviously, it would be highly unusual, but a closed-door vote and an agreement to keep it secret would also liberate republican senators to go along with removal while still allowing them to tell their voters hey, it wasn't me!
why would republican senators agree to this? frankly, they probably want donnie gone. he's not a great salesman for the republican party. he may well prove to be a disaster for the republican party. what republicans don't want is to be *seen* as opposing him. because they're afraid of their own base. if donnie can't pinpoint who voted against him, his voters won't know what to do.
and once donnie's removed from office, republican voters aren't likely to simply oppose every republican incumbent just in case they had something to do with removing donnie.
all that said, by far the most likely scenario is that the senate refuses to convict and they insist it was all a witch hunt.
and hopefully they all pay a huge price at the polls for that.