This has been the pattern all along, the method by which Trump gets his supporters to accept his proverbial Fifth Avenue shootings:

First insist it’s not real, that he didn’t do it, that it’s all a hoax.

Then admit it’s real but it’s being overblown and taken out of context by the media.

Then defiantly proclaim that sure, of course he did it. It’s normal, it’s perfect, it’s what everybody does, so why are you making such a big deal out of it?

All of this was previewed, in detail, by last year’s impeachment trial, from the assurance that there was no quid pro quo with Ukraine to the insistence that of course there was a quid pro quo, and that’s just fine.

Except this time it’s about a lot of people dying, and dying unnecessarily.