I KNEW DAN QUAYLE, NONE OF THEM ARE DAN QUAYLE:

First, what did they know: The idea that the tiny network of the nation's top Republicans were not circulating the ghastly details of Trump's actions beginning on Election Day defies credulity.

Of course they would have known about the pressure Pence was under, surely by late December. Not only were these discussions happening all over town, but Pence himself was out and about seeking counsel, asking various Republicans if they could see any way out for him. If Dan Quayle knew what was going on from his house 600 miles away in Indiana, then Mitch McConnell and Ted Cruz and the rest of the Republican Senate caucus must have known what was happening a mile from their offices.

But they had secrets to keep until the Senate runoffs in Georgia January 5. Mitch McConnell was only willing to say that overturning the election "would damage our Republic forever" after he'd lost his position as majority leader. To slightly invert Churchill, McConnell was given the choice of defeat or dishonor. He chose dishonor. And then he got defeat in the bargain, anyway.

Yet let's pretend that, somehow, Republican senators had truly been innocent--like children they had genuinely not known anything about Trump's intentions and actions before January 6.

Well, they surely learned about them on January 6. We know this because during the 187 minute span that afternoon, Trump called Republican senators. We know that he spoke with Tommy Tuberville and Josh Hawley. Who else did Trump call? And are we supposed to believe that neither of these men conveyed what they learned about Trump's state of mind to their colleagues?

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