The GOP’s Incredibly Weak ‘Whatabout’ Effort

Philip Bump: “So it is that we enter our second (third? Who can keep track) week of apologists for former president Donald Trump seeking to equate his effort to retain documents sought by the government with a clutch of documents with classification markings found at President Biden’s home and an office he used.”

“Despite the ongoing incomparability of the situations, the relentless, overlapping desires to curry Trump’s favor and to appeal to his loyal followers by echoing his rhetoric has generated a new series of arguments from Republicans, encapsulated over the weekend in a revealing demand…”

“By suggesting that the Trump and Biden situations are the same, though, Comer and Trump’s other allies can feign equivalence and hypocrisy. And given the apparent lack of interest among Trump’s base in a more nuanced, more accurate presentation of the situation, the play works.”