Publicly, a number of Republican senators have declined to comment on the mounting evidence against president Donald Trump citing the possibility that they would later become jurors -- they would weigh the evidence in the Senate trial. For example, here’s West Virginia’s Capito:

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) said she’d reserve making judgments until the Senate considers the impeachment trial. . . .

To that end, Capito has declined to say anything about the House impeachment witnesses. But recently, the president and Senate Republicans appear to be getting ready for a trial. Today, the president discussed impeachment at lunch with a group of Republicans including Capito:

Other Republican senators at the White House included Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky (a fierce critic of impeachment), Chuck Grassley of Iowa, John Hoeven of North Dakota, James Lankford of Oklahoma and Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia.

That followed an earlier meeting of Republican senators in which impeachment strategy was discussed:

A group of Republican senators met Thursday morning with White House counsel Pat Cipollone, counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner to discuss impeachment strategyhttps://t.co/bSSaOndLey

— POLITICO (@politico) November 21, 2019

I’m surprised that the Republicans wasted space on Capito in the first meeting – she ranks 2nd among all current senators in her support for Trump and she has been dutifully repeating the Republican talking points since August. I would think that Capito would be one of the last off the boat if the Trump ship goes down.