Fat Hurts,
You are correct about how autocrats leave office, but Trump is an autocrat WANNABE, and there's a difference.
The Senate had be very careful. If Mueller's report is as damning as I believe it will be, if the Senate doesn't convict him after the House's impeachment, it is telling every future president that they can do whatever the hell they want to do...obstruction of justice, conspiring with an enemy foreign power to win an election, and on and on. Would be better for Republicans to do it sooner than later...get Pence in there for a while before the 2020 election.