Republicans discuss a longer Senate impeachment trial to scramble Democratic primaries

[FBaggins]

23. They do if McConnell says they do

And he's already done that:

McConnell told his conference that if the House votes to impeach, the Senate trial would begin every day at around 12:30 p.m. and run six days per week with only Sundays off. All senators must be present and, in a break from norms and nature, they must remain silent. McConnell said after the meeting this “should be good therapy for a number of them.”

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/paulmcleod/trump-impeachment-senate-trial-how-to-republicans

The majority certainly has the power to make such a rule, and there are other ways within the existing rules to have the same effect on candidate senators... but that wasn't my point. This isn't something like a vote on declaring next Tuesday to be "National Left-Handed Music Teachers Day" that you can miss without political repercussions. It's an impeachment trial where they sit as jury/judge. When do judges or juries miss days of trial?

At any point during the trial, there could come a consequential vote. When republicans decide that they want Schiff called as a witness (when he could also be one of the prosecutors), or they want to call the whistleblower, or that hearsay evidence cannot be entered into the record, the entire Senate could be called upon to vote on the issue. Our candidates can't be absent for such votes.