What has sunk in for Republicans is that after 18 months of downplaying and whitewashing all this, they now not only have to defend Trump’s conduct that fateful day, but also excuse a two-month coup attempt that began on Nov. 3 and continued until Jan. 6, 2021. The midterm election isn’t tomorrow; there will be more than four months of answering for this. The revelations won’t end at the last hearing either. The Select Committee will produce a report with additional findings before the election, long after Democrats have already run commercials citing all the lies Republicans are still attempting to cover up.

The truth is so awful that the politically safe posture, and most reasonable response, would involve acknowledging that the hearings have raised disturbing questions and produced alarming answers. But that would incur Trump’s wrath. So Republicans have chosen to bob and weave, no matter how stupid they sound…

While the committee discusses a potential criminal referral to the Department of Justice at the conclusion of its investigation, and legal experts debate this on cable news, Republicans are silent. Not one of them is out there insisting Trump committed no crimes in the plot to steal the election. No one is standing up to bellow that no, Trump never actually lied, that he believed he won because a drunken Rudy Giuliani told him so, and it was rational to believe Rudy over the facts, credible authorities, the attorney general, his campaign staff, his campaign lawyers, private lawyers, and state election officials.