Trump’s impeachment defense has come to this

And it led to a rare sign of concern in the Republican ranks on which Trump will rely to save him in any Senate impeachment trial — from senior GOP Sen. John Thune.

The President did what he often does when an unappealing political reality threatens: He simply invented a more advantageous one, launching misleading attacks on the conduct of the inquiry and picking new fights.

“The Never Trumper Republicans, though on respirators with not many left, are in certain ways worse and more dangerous for our Country than the Do Nothing Democrats. Watch out for them, they are human scum!” he tweeted.

It was not clear who the President was singling out, though his tweet could be a catchall for any Republican — such as Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah — who has called out his behavior.

On Tuesday, Trump’s press secretary, Stephanie Grisham, blasted officials who testify against the President as radical bureaucrats “waging war on the Constitution.”

“People are saying, wow, what a great outcome,” Trump said of a drama that caused a humanitarian crisis, boosted Turkey, Iran and Russia at US expense and deserted America’s Kurdish allies.

A ‘nuts’ room invasion

The hearing room stunt Wednesday morning, which saw the braying invaders refuse to leave for around five hours, came days after the President told Republicans they needed to be tougher in his defense.

“It was closest thing I’ve seen around here to mass civil unrest as a member of Congress,” said one source in the room.

Another source familiar with the matter said Trump had advance knowledge of the plans to attempt entry to the secure area. Many of the angry Republican lawmakers involved had been at the White House on Tuesday.

Republicans say their protest was to call attention to Democrats who are holding impeachment depositions behind closed doors.

Democrats say they are acting within their constitutional powers and eventually plan open hearings but want to ensure witness depositions cannot be contaminated at this early stage.

The episode hinted at how badly a string of testimony by senior and former foreign policy officials is hurting Trump as Democrats investigate whether he abused his power by coercing Ukraine to dig up dirt on 2016 Democrats and his potential 2020 political foe, former Vice President Joe Biden.

Days of revelations appear to be building a solid case for impeachment. That’s especially the case since there has been a paucity of counter-leaks with mitigating evidence from GOPers who are inside the hearings.

One Republican, Rep. Mo Brooks of Alabama, accused Democrats of plotting to oust the President in secret.

“Show your face where we can all see the travesty that you are trying to foist on America and the degradation of our republic that you’re engaged in,” he said.

But another one of Trump’s sworn defenders, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, failed to appreciate the spectacle in the sensitive compartmented information facility — shorthanded on Capitol Hill to “SCIF” — into which some lawmakers had plunged with insecure cellphones in contravention of the rules.

Wednesday’s mayhem was all the more jarring since lawmakers are expected to restore decorum on Thursday, the start of two days of mourning for the late Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland.

US envoy offered the ‘why’ in quid pro quo

The uproar doesn’t change much in the substance of the growing impeachment case.

While the closed-door nature of the hearings provides only a selective impression of evidence, Trump’s plight seems to darken by the day. His lawyers and allies will likely get the chance to cross-examine witnesses in a later stage of the House process, and they definitely would in a Senate impeachment trial.

But there are growing questions about the defense they can make given the torrent of damaging testimony so far.

Taylor testified on Tuesday about a rogue foreign policy operation in the White House involving the President’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani. He also says he was told that Trump insisted there was no quid pro quo with Ukraine but wanted its President to publicly state that he would investigate a conspiracy theory about 2016 election interference, along with Biden and the former vice president’s son.

“He definitely alleges a quid pro quo and it is an incredibly detailed statement. … It is very convincing,” Ross Garber, an experienced impeachment attorney, told CNN’s Jake Tapper.

Democrats insist that there need not be a quid pro quo for Trump to have committed an impeachable offense — simply abusing his power to set foreign policy for political gain would be enough.

“The issue is — the why. Why was this happening? That’s why I think Taylor’s testimony was so devastating: He offers the why,” Garber said.

“Right now, there hasn’t been a White House answer to counter the Bill Taylor narrative for why — which was essentially campaign assistance.”

Trump’s Republican defenders refashioned a previous defense of the President, saying Taylor’s testimony was not based on firsthand knowledge of Trump’s actions and intentions.

“Nowhere in that phone call is there a quid pro quo,” McCarthy told CNN’s Manu Raju. Many observers have looked at the call and concluded exactly the opposite, however.

Trump’s growing exposure was not exclusive to Capitol Hill.

A federal judge in Washington ordered the State Department to release Ukraine-related records, including communications between Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Giuliani.

The documents could shed more light on the off-the-books foreign policy shop on Ukraine that Democrats charge the President used to hide his abuses of power.

In a federal appeals court in Manhattan, meanwhile, one of Trump’s lawyers argued that the President is effectively above the law as he sought to block the release of Trump’s tax returns to New York state prosecutors.

Attorney William Consovoy argued that local authorities in New York City could not prosecute the sitting President even if he shot someone in the street.