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The whistleblower complaint about Donald Trump pressuring the president of Ukraine for his own personal benefit and White House officials covering up that call is nine pages long, counting its appendix. Somehow, despite this being rather big news, and, again, nine pages long, Senate Republicans aren’t finding time to read it (or so they say).
The whistleblower’s letter was released Thursday morning, but as of Thursday afternoon, at least a dozen Republican senators had dodged reporters’ questions by claiming not to have read it. Some of them pretended that they hadn’t read it yet because they just took the task so seriously. South Carolina’s Tim Scott told The Wall Street Journal that he’d started reading it but hadn’t finished it, and “I’d rather absorb it, as opposed to commenting on part of it.” Indiana’s Todd Young literally said that he had other work to do first and “It’s not because it’s unserious or I’m an unserious legislator.”
As for supposed profile in Trump-era Republican moral courage Mitt Romney, “Haven’t seen it.” Not just hadn’t read it, hadn’t even seen it.
Tennessee’s Lamar Alexander apparently doesn't plan to read it at all: “I’m waiting for the intelligence committee to finish its work.” Similarly, Idaho’s Jim Risch isn’t interested in the whistleblower complaint because he’d rather focus on the primary document—the partial, edited transcript of Trump’s call. South Dakota’s Mike Rounds similarly called the whistleblower report “second-hand information.” The whistleblower letter, of course, offers a lot of information about the context in which that call took place and what preceded and followed it, and is rendered believable by the fact that what it reports of the call itself is accurate.
In all, these Republicans have denied having read it:
- Tim Scott
- Todd Young
- Mitt Romney
- Lamar Alexander
- Jim Risch
- Rob Portman (Ohio)
- Martha McSally (Arizona)
- Lisa Murkowski (Alaska)
- Mike Crapo (Idaho)
- Mike Braun (indiana)
- James Lankford (Oklahoma)
- John Hoeven (North Dakota)
- Joni Ernst (Iowa)
This is a nine-page document that is part of an impeachment inquiry. They’re either lying about not having read it or they’re refusing to read it as a desperate grasp at plausible deniability. And the reason is simple: “Our sense is that it is still much too early to tell what the political impact of all of this is going to be,” a Republican operative told The Wall Street Journal. “Everyone’s going to be watching over the coming weeks to see how the numbers on impeachment move in public polling. I think particularly how independents see it.” And once they see where the polling ends up, Senate Republicans will maybe find the time to read the report ... or at least, find the courage to admit they did.