I only watched about ten minutes of the House Managers yesterday making the case against Donald Trump. I'll balance it today by only watching about ten minutes of his defense. Overall, my view of the whole thing is the same as that of pundit Kevin Drum…
Republicans don't want to convict a president of their own party, but they also don't want to force their members to cast a vote implicitly approving of insurrection. So they groped around for some kind of technicality that would eliminate their dilemma and came up with the out-of-office dodge. This allows them to vote to acquit but to claim it was solely because of their deep commitment to constitutional norms.
One of the reasons Richard Nixon resigned when he did was to spare members of his party in the House and Senate from having to cast votes about his guilt or innocence. They knew that if they voted with him, they'd lose half their base and if they voted against him, they'd lose the other half. You can't get re-elected if you lose half your base.
Democrats have forced them to vote on Trump and almost all will vote to acquit. But they'll profess it's not because they thought he was guilty or innocent. In a way, I almost have more respect for the ones who'll make it clear they're not voting to convict because they love and support the guy.