On Wednesday morning, White House counsel Pat Cipollone reportedly summoned several Trump allies to the White House to review the rough transcript of a call between Donald Trump and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky. The goal of the mind meld was to coordinate talking points before the memo was released. The group dispersed, Axios reports, feeling pretty good. “The sense was that the transcript didn’t come close to living up to the hype Democrats had set up, and didn’t remotely approach impeachable,” a source familiar with the White House meeting told Axios. Then the transcript was released, and pandemonium ensued. Democrats—not to mention the majority of people with eyeballs—saw what House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff called a “mafia-like shakedown.”

Now, it seems, some Trump allies wish they could take it all back. Per Axios, the mood has shifted in Trumpworld, where some supporters worry the transcript “makes him seem guilty and sets a bad precedent” for keeping these types of calls private. One adviser told Axios the call “looks worse than anything he’s seen to date—and it’s documented.” Even those who believe the call “puts the whole quid pro quo to bed,” as one administration official put it to Axios, are realizing it “trades it for several other issues,” not least of which is fueling an impeachment inquiry with words straight from the president’s own mouth.

According to multiple outlets, at least some in the president’s circle pushed against the transcript’s release. Per the Washington Post, that included Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin; Politico reported that both were “worried about the precedent it would set regarding confidential conversations with other foreign leaders.” (Mnuchin and Pompeo were later seen standing uncomfortably behind Trump at the United Nations while Trump defended his call, bashed the Democrats, and rambled about winning the electoral college in 2016.) Others, however, sincerely believed the call was exculpatory. In addition to several attendees at the meeting reported by Axios—which included several congressmen firmly in MAGA world, such as Jim Jordan, Devin Nunes, John Ratcliffe, Matt Gaetz and Mark Meadows—Attorney General William Barr thought releasing the transcript would be for the best. He had reportedly been lobbying for the transcript’s release since last week; one former official told Politico he was the “drumbeat behind the scenes to get that thing out.”

To understand how Trump’s allies could possibly think releasing the transcript was a good idea, it’s necessary to internalize just how warped their view of political reality has become. The behind-the-scenes debate underscores exactly how far the pro-Trump world has detached itself from the multiverse. Like Robert Mueller’s report, the call transcript was a litmus test. Trump’s allies claim to see it as innocent, while the rest of the world sees a president using his executive powers to attempt to solicit election help from another country. The whistle-blower report released Thursday morning is already garnering the same reaction. “[I’m] much more confident than I was this morning that this is going to go nowhere,” GOP representative Chris Stewart told Laura Ingraham on Wednesday night, after reading the report, adding, ”There are just no surprises there.”

Ultimately, the call transcript and whistle-blower report may prove to be clearer cut than the Mueller report—the line “I would like you to do us a favor though” from Trump certainly doesn’t hurt. At least, that’s what Democrats are banking on as they push forward with their impeachment inquiry. “I thought, How could he release this? How foolish is this man? He’s not aware of the law,” Congressman Steve Cohen, who sits on the House Judiciary Committee, told my colleague Abigail Tracy on Wednesday. “I don’t know who’s advising him.... It’s pretty clear cut.”

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