The party is uniting around a strategy that could quickly acquit President Donald Trump of articles of impeachment while giving them the opportunity to call witnesses later in the trial if Republicans and the president are not satisfied with how things are going, according to interviews with nearly a dozen Republican senators on Thursday.

Heading into the trial, Republicans’ plan would be to call no witnesses and simply allow House Democrats and then the president’s attorneys to make their case before the public. After that, the Senate would consider calling people either for live testimony or closed-door depositions…

Essentially, Republicans are aiming to set up a fork in the road and defer the painful topic of whether to call witnesses. A real divide is already being exposed in the party over whether to bring in witnesses, though it’s a dynamic that could fade once the trial actually starts.