As House Democrats move forward with an impeachment inquiry against Donald Trump, the president's staunchest defenders in both Congress and the White House are trying to spin the situation. Across talk shows on Sunday, Republican officials sidestepped questions about whether Trump pressured a foreign government to interfere with U.S. elections and then White House officials covered it up.

Appearing on Face the Nation, South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham said that he had "zero problems" with Trump's call with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, echoing his claims from earlier in the week that the summary of the call was a "nothing burger." He also claimed that it's not possible to impeach a president based on hearsay, saying, "This seems to me like a political setup. It's all hearsay. You can't get a parking-ticket conviction based on hearsay." Aside from the fact that an impeachment investigation doesn't adhere to the same standards as a criminal conviction, the damning call summary corroborates the more damning whistleblower's complaint, and, well, Trump and his personal lawyer, Rudolph Giuliani, have admitted to asking Zelensky and Ukrainian representatives to investigate whether Democratic presidential contender and former vice president Joe Biden got a Ukrainian prosecutor fired to protect his son Hunter's business interests in the country (a claim that has been thoroughly debunked).

Ohio congressman Jim Jordan took a similar tack, asking Jake Tapper on CNN's State of the Union, "First, did they have firsthand knowledge? And second, what is their motivation? Was there some kind of bias?" When Tapper pointed out that the whistleblower was quoting sources with firsthand knowledge, Jordan squarely rejected those characterizations. At one point, as Jordan was making rapid-fire allegations against Joe and Hunter Biden and accusing Tapper of going through mental "gymnastics," Tapper brought up Jordan's alleged connection with a sexual-abuse scandal at Ohio State University, saying, "Sir, it’s not gymnastics. It’s facts. And I would think somebody who’s been accused of things in the last year or two would be more sensitive about throwing out wild allegations against people."

While Jordan insisted that Hunter Biden's securing of a lavishly paid position was the real scandal, Tapper reminded him that this was a standard that the current administration couldn't meet either: "The president's daughter right now is having all sorts of copyrights granted in foreign countries. That doesn't alarm you. The president's sons are doing all sorts of business all over the world. That doesn't alarm you. Either there's a principle that people shouldn't benefit from their connections or there isn't."

White House adviser Stephen Miller also made an appearance on Sunday, speaking to Fox News's Chris Wallace, who promptly went viral for holding Miller's feet to the fire. When Wallace asked Miller how he knew for certain the whistleblower wasn't acting in good faith, despite acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire telling Congress exactly the opposite, Miller declined to provide any evidence, instead claiming that the complaint is a "seven-page Nancy Drew novel" and that it "drips with condescension, righteous indignation, and contempt for the president."