The basics.
What we’re expecting to see: The Senate is set to vote Wednesday on two articles of impeachment against President Trump. The first charges him with abusing the power of his office by pressuring Ukraine to interfere in the 2020 presidential election on his behalf by withholding military aid and a White House meeting; the other charges him with obstructing Congress in a bid to hide his wrongdoing.
When we’re likely to see it: The votes — one for each article of impeachment — are expected to begin at 4 p.m. Eastern. In the morning, senators will take to the Senate floor to explain their decisions to either convict or acquit Mr. Trump.
How to follow it: The New York Times’s congressional and White House teams will be following all of the day’s developments. Visit nytimes.com for a live stream and vote tracker of the proceedings.
Will any Democrats break ranks to acquit on one or both charges?
With Republicans standing in lock step to acquit Mr. Trump, all eyes on Wednesday afternoon will be on Senate Democrats in search of any defections. The president and other Republicans would love nothing more than to be able to trumpet a bipartisan acquittal.
A handful of moderate Democrats, including Senators Joe Manchin III of West Virginia and Doug Jones of Alabama — who is facing a steep re-election challenge this year — have left the door open to acquittal but have held their cards close to their chest. Mr. Manchin floated the idea this week of censuring the president, a largely symbolic gesture, but it remained dead on arrival in the polarized chamber.
Only one lawmaker, Representative Jared Golden, Democrat of Maine, split his votes on impeachment when the House considered the articles in December. He opposed the obstruction of Congress charge, contending it was not warranted because House Democrats had not fought hard enough in the courts to try to force critical administration officials to testify in their inquiry.
Republicans concede that House managers proved their case, but decline to convict.
Dashing the hopes of Democrats who implored them to break party lines, moderate Senate Republicans held together and announced, one by one, that they would acquit Mr. Trump, contending that removal from office was an overly excessive punishment that would disenfranchise voters.
Senator Susan Collins of Maine, who is facing a steep re-election challenge, called the president’s actions “wrong” and “improper.” Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, who is not running for re-election, said last week that House Democrats had proved their case that Mr. Trump withheld foreign aid to Ukraine as leverage Ukraine for an investigation into his political rivals.
But both asserted that the act was not impeachable, arguing that removing Mr. Trump from office before the election in November would traumatize an already bitterly divided nation.
Now, the fight over the president’s political future will play out in the broader political arena.
“I’m sure there are going to be people unhappy with me in Maine,” Ms. Collins told CBS. “My job is not to weigh the political consequences, but to do impartial justice to live up to the oath that I took.”