The House of Representatives including virtually every Democrat and a handful of Republicans are voting to impeach Donald Trump today but, as you probably expected, the Republican-controlled Senate will not act on it.
Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is still the majority leader at the moment and he will not consent to bringing the Senate back into session.
From the Wall Street Journal:
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) has rejected a request by Democrats to reconvene the Senate before its scheduled return next week in order to begin the process of trying President Trump on charges that he incited an insurrection at the Capitol.
Mr. McConnell’s office called Sen. Chuck Schumer’s office on Wednesday to say that he wouldn’t bring the Senate back into session before its scheduled Jan. 19 return to accept an article of impeachment from the House, an aide to Mr. McConnell said. The Republican leader could have brought the Senate back early with agreement from the Democratic leader under a 2004 law that authorizes the emergency return of the Senate provided that both lawmakers agree.
January 19th -- the day the Senate will come back into session -- will be McConnell's last day as the majority leader and possibly the last time we will ever see him in that position. Or at least one can hope. Senator Schumer will become the majority leader after Kamala Harris is sworn in as the Vice President and incoming Senators Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock take their seats.
Scattered reports that McConnell is personally supportive of Trump's impeachment in some capacity may have been accurate to some extent, but it doesn't really matter, does it? It doesn't matter if he's not actually willing to hold a trial and vote before Trump leaves office.
I did not expect a two-thirds majority of the Senate would vote to convict Trump in any case, but refusing to act on his impeachment; refusing to even pretend to care is just the latest and perhaps one of the clearest examples of the Republican party becoming a permanent opposition party that no longer governs.
If Republicans won't hold a Republican president responsible for inciting an actual attempted coup, I think we can say they will literally never hold one of their own responsible for anything.
The Party of No Personal Responsibility.