One of the revelations from recently released transcripts in the House impeachment inquiry is that GOP lawmakers have just as ferociously attacked the impeachment process behind closed doors as they have in public. But new polling from Monmouth University shows another reason why House Republicans are never going to broach the substance of Donald Trump's actions, as Trump is now exhorting them to do. Not only are the facts too damning, but focusing on them might actually clue nearly a third of GOP voters into what Trump actually did.
The bubble is real, folks, with 29% of Republicans telling Monmouth Trump “probably did not” discuss investigating the Bidens with the Ukrainian president and another 22% saying they “don’t know” (meaning a total of 51% of Republicans have no idea what Trump did). As I wrote last week, fully 81% of Republican voters believe it's wrong to seek electoral help from a foreign government, giving GOP lawmakers even more incentive to avoid the substance of what Trump actually did.
So add the fact that even if most GOP voters think seeking foreign help is wrong, a healthy chunk of them don't believe Trump asked Ukraine to investigate the Bidens and you get a strategy that avoids the facts altogether. It's actually perfect for the ruby red districts that most of the GOP caucus hails from—many of their voters are likely solidly ensconced in bubble think.
In any case, looking at the different GOP approaches to defending Trump is interesting. House Republicans are homed in on process only—no facts—so that people won't read the call transcript. Trump is encouraging people to read the rough transcript of the call to the exclusion of all other evidence—as are Trump's staunchest Senate defenders—so that people won’t take into consideration all the other factors that point to Trump’s wrongdoing. While many GOP senators have just zipped their lips altogether so they can at least temporarily ignore everything, since none of it really exonerates Trump unless one views it through the lens of a cultist.