(CNN) This story was originally published in the November 25 edition of CNN's Meanwhile in America, the daily email about US politics for global readers. Sign up here to receive it every weekday morning.

These are strange times in America. The Republican Party once wouldn't stop boasting that it won the Cold War. Now, it embraces a Kremlin-hatched conspiracy theory that Ukraine meddled in the 2016 election -- despite US spy agencies' conclusion that Russia itself is to blame.

Evidence abounds to show that the US president demanded a quid pro quo with Ukraine to investigate this very conspiracy theory, and a political rival. Yet his supporters deny what is not even hiding in plain sight.

One Republican big beast, John Bolton, could have tantalizing details about Ukraine. But his new crusade for justice is a trivial one: The sacked national security advisor claims the White House hijacked his Twitter account.

And it has fallen to immigrants to warn US lawmakers about the peril this scandal poses to American values, as they testify in their role of senior officials before an impeachment probe. (The rest of the nation is on an entirely different planet from Washington, DC, with voters more worried about lost industrial jobs, how to pay for healthcare and mountains of student debt.)

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