Having apparently forgotten what it is they do for a living, or where it is they do it, many Republicans in Congress are aping President Donald Trump’s justification for disclosing highly classified intelligence to Russian officials as a way of explaining their own seeming indifference to his disastrous presidency.

As President I wanted to share with Russia (at an openly scheduled W.H. meeting) which I have the absolute right to do, facts pertaining.... — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 16, 2017

.@SenatorRisch defends Trump revealing classified info to the Russians: "It's no longer classified the minute he utters it." — Alice Ollstein (@AliceOllstein) May 15, 2017

McCain just saw WP: "We certainly don't want any president to leak classified information but the president does have the right to do that." — Erica Werner (@ericawerner) May 15, 2017

The defense that Trump’s disclosure was technically legal is an unresponsive dodge, a non sequitur. If it were widely understood over the 241 years since the founding that presidents were expected to be unconstrained except by the subset of federal laws that applies to the president, many of the powers vested in the Congress, including impeachment, would not exist.



Here, for instance, are some things Trump could theoretically claim as his “absolute right.”

1. Bombing Mexico.

2. Tweeting out the locations of every covert U.S. operative in the world.