Trump’s defenders are running out of options

Every American should be embarrassed, depressed, and/or disgusted by the responses of Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate to a simple question: Is it appropriate for President Donald Trump to ask a foreign government to investigate a political rival?

With the exception of Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), when she is cornered, Republicans have ducked, dodged, or denied, often expressing outrage at the process used by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Chair of the Intelligence Committee Adam Schiff (D-Calif.). Going where people usually go when they conclude the facts do not support their side, they have also deployed the politics of distraction and “whatabout” assaults on Hillary Clinton and “Never Trump” members of the “Deep State.” Evasive non-answer answers to reporters’ questions about substance by people such as Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.), Sen. Martha McSally (R-Ariz.), Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) and Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) are painful to watch or read. Equally painful was the stunt played by 30 belligerent members of the House, who marched into a committee hearing in violation of rules promulgated in 2015 by a Republican majority.

And it’s getting worse. Here are two recent, and especially egregious examples:

Pressed by CNN reporter Manu Raju about whether it was appropriate for President Trump to ask Volodymyr Zelensky, the newly-elected president of Ukraine, to investigate Joe Biden and Hunter Biden in exchange for the release of a military aid package passed by Congress, Rep. Mark Amodei (R-Nev.), who had expressed support for an impeachment inquiry — and then walked it back — wondered why the Democrats had no plans to call the whistleblower to testify. “You didn’t answer my question…,” Raju responded. Amodei shot back: “I disagree with your conclusion. It’s a conclusion, not a question.” Raju tried again: “Is it okay for the president to ask a foreign country to investigate the Bidens?” Amodei repeated his non sequitur: “That’s not a question,” adding, “If you want to interview yourself, go ahead.”

On Monday, with the release of the opening statement of Alexander Vindman, the top Ukraine expert on Trump’s National Security Council, to the House Intelligence Committee, in which he declared that he “did not think it was proper to demand that a foreign government investigate a U.S. citizen, and was worried about the implications for the U.S. government’s bi-partisan support of Ukraine,” former Congressman Sean Duffy (R-Wis.) joined Fox & Friends Trumpers in trashing the foreign service officer (and lieutenant colonel in the Army), who fled Ukraine with his father and twin brother when he was 3 years old, served several overseas tours as a U.S. infantry officer, and received a Purple Heart after he was wounded in Iraq: “It seems very clear that he is incredibly concerned about Ukrainian defense,” Duffy proclaimed. “I don’t know that he’s concerned about American policy… We all have an affinity to our homeland where we came from… He has an affinity for the Ukraine.”

Alas, it may not be true that Republicans have nowhere to go but up.

Following the House vote to lay out impeachment procedures on Thursday, Republican members of Congress — to say nothing of American voters — may find process arguments less compelling. In any event, President Trump has suggested they “go into the details of the case rather than process. Process is good, but I think you ought to look at the case.”

If they do, one wonders, will they acknowledge, at least tacitly, that the evidence of a quid pro quo is overwhelming?

If past is prologue, Republicans may well double-down on the lousy hand their president has dealt them.

That said, Republican members of Congress whose re-election is in doubt, I suspect, will join the growing number of their colleagues who have announced their retirement and choose the only plausible strategy left to them.

What the president did was wrong, they will say, probably softly and off-camera, and then declare that the offense is not impeachable. In any event, they will add, the voters should decide whether Donald Trump should have a second term.

The rest will keep their fingers crossed and hope against hope that more shoes — or even heavier objects — don’t drop before November.

Glenn C. Altschuler is the Thomas and Dorothy Litwin Professor of American Studies at Cornell University. He is the co-author (with Stuart Blumin) of Rude Republic:  Americans and Their Politics in the Nineteenth Century.