When the Senate gets the two articles of impeachment from the House, it will have no choice but to deal with both. The question is how they should do it. The Senate has options.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has already stated that President Trump will not be removed for the threadbare, inadequate articles of impeachment passed by the House. So, here are a few ways that it could turn out:

The Senate could entertain a motion by the president’s counsel to dismiss — before the start of a trial — both articles of impeachment, for failure to meet the constitutional threshold for stating a cause of action. Such a decision would require a simple majority of 51 votes because this would be a procedural motion;

The Senate could begin a trial and, thereafter, could end it whenever the Senate majority deems it has heard enough and calls for a vote. Such a vote would be called when the Senate majority is confident that a supermajority of 67 senators – two-thirds of the Senate – would not vote to convict;