The problem with the defense being offered by the White House and being repeated by most of the non-conservative press is that it rests on, there’s no direct tit-for-tat ergo no corruption. Problem is, when politico’s palms get greased (at least if they’re smart) it never goes direct, family members and close associates are always used as the go-betweens.
The real problem for Republicans here is that they’ve made their own bed and then have to lie in it with regards to DC corruption. They spent four years screaming “Nothingburger!” over every Trump scandal, which created a desensitization to scandal, and now they’re finding that they can’t switch people back to be scandalized.
Of course, the Democrats have their own issue in this in that they made Trump out to be this extreme abnormality from the DC status quo. If it turns out that it’s more like, Trump was just too stupid to do DC corruption in the usual discrete ways, it undermines that rationale for keeping Trump out of the White House.
Damn all these vaccines have turned me into Magneto? Awesome!