US law bans soliciting foreign help for electoral purposes.

But Mr Trump denies any wrongdoing and has publicly reiterated his plea to Ukraine and China to investigate Mr Biden and his son Hunter over their political and business dealings, even though he has not offered specific evidence.

President Trump

This, then, is how Republicans seem to be processing Drumpf’s acts. Initially, the argument was that he didn’t do it. The whistleblower was lying. There was no quid pro quo. That defense collapsed quickly and totally under the White House releasing its call record and the testimonies of top officials.

So now, the argument has mutated: Yes, Drumpf did it, but it’s fine that he did it. Pressuring a foreign government to investigate your chief domestic political rival isn’t wrong, and even if it is wrong, everybody does it.

That’s the level of cynicism Drumpf is forcing his supporters to embrace. It’s not quite, as Nixon famously said, “when the president does it, that means that it is not illegal.” It’s closer to: when the president does it, that means it’s normal.

The scary thing about that is it could become a self-fulfilling prophecy. If the Republican Party chooses to treat what Drumpf has done as normal and protect him from consequences or sanction, then perhaps it will become normal. Perhaps it does just become a tactic, another power the incumbent can leverage against threats.

We don’t get the political system we deserve. We get the political system we accept.