Mitch McConnell clearly cannot decide whether Trump remains the key mobiliser of Republican support or has overplayed his hand with the incitement of the Capitol insurrection. Earlier in the week sources close to the leader of the Senate claimed he was minded to hear the arguments about Trump’s role in the incompetent insurrection. Now he confirms there will be no time for this to be considered in the Senate prior to the inauguration of Joe Biden.

When it was first intimated that Senator McConnell was distancing himself from president Trump there were few on planet earth thought he had emerged from a deep sleep unruffled by questions of principle and awoken to the danger the president represented to the constitution. Those who would accuse him of principle are few and far between.

Long before Donald Trump was anywhere near the presidency Senator McConnell was driving a partisan tank through convention after convention, blocking effective government and opposing any initiative of the Democratic president. This culminated in, what at the time appeared to be an outrageous abuse of process, the blocking of president Obama’s nominations to the Supreme Court for the whole of the last year of his administration.

So what we can expect from Senator McConnell is careful political calculation and at the moment he does not appear to be sure which way to jump. The attack on the Capitol threw all previous calculations into confusion.

The suggestions he may be sympathetic toward impeachment may have been partly to test the waters with Republican opinion outside Washington and partly to strengthen his hand in negotiations to bring some discipline to president Trump’s departure. It must be clear, if the incompetent insurrection did not destroy Trump’s power base it certainly weakened his authority.

It must be becoming clear that Trump has the potential to become a long term liability for the Republican party. He may always have a cult following of true believers. Those who think ANTIFA and BLM were responsible for the invasion of the Capitol. One has to believe they do not constitute a majority of the Republican party.

As things go from bad to worse for Trump he becomes an ever loser cannon. At some point Mitch McConnell has to jump. He has to decide if Trump is now, or soon will be, a busted flush. If he leaves it too late he may find even Republican voters feel he has liability for whatever outrageous thing Trump the president, or the citizen, does next.