Sarah Longwell

He's just laying out the facts.

And then he's also doing what I wish a lot of other, I think, public officials would do, which is he clearly has called Lisa Murkowski to be like, hey, I testified in front of you.

You know this.

You're a reasonable person.

This is what he's doing.

Like, he's called Tom Tillis.

He has talked to them and said, you know this is wrong.

And he is making them stand up for him.

And...

That is like, I don't know, he's handling Trump and what is happening to him better.

And the other thing is, like, he is fighting in a world in which everybody else has basically given up their institution.

For Trump's benefit, he is refusing to—he's out in May.

He could just wait it out.

He could just put his head down and try to do his best.

But he is publicly putting his body out in front and saying, I won't let you do this to my institution.

And I just, you know—

Not all heroes wear capes.

We are often—don't get—like, I just—I spend a lot of time thinking about silence and who has been silent in this moment.

Like, we had an entire generation—you're speaking of George W. Bush—of generals and of presidents and people in an administration who sent people across the world to die for American democracy.

Or not American democracy, but to fight—to push democracy elsewhere.