So last week, a bipartisan Senate report quietly confirmed what we knew all along: That the Russian government of Vladimir Putin actively interfered in the 2016 election, that members of the Trump campaign, including his campaign manager and his son, knowingly shared campaign information with agents of the Russian government and lied about it afterwards to cover up their crimes. Even Marco Rubio and the Republicans on the committee agreed with these indisputable facts.

Still the Republicans leading the committee ended the damning report by saying that there was no ‘collusion’—technically true, since in legal terms, collusion only refers to violations of anti-trust law. What they don’t say is that there was no conspiracy, election fraud, perjury or obstruction of justice.

It would seem that nothing short of a signed agreement between Trump and Putin to steal the election would make the Republican party turn against Trump. I strongly suspect that even if such an agreement turned up, the Republicans would find a way to rationalize that, too.

Marshall Miller, Butler