Yeah this makes more sense, and dovetails with the early reports that Trump was pleased with his performance. They may not have expected it to blow up quite as big as it did, or for DOJ to disavow the scheme, but it feels like a deliberate gambit to test “I ordered the code red.”

— Jason McGlothlen (@goddamnedfrank) October 18, 2019

This is a really hard one to walk back, because he vociferously defended it in the followup questioning. Of course the GOP talking heads will try to run with that, but all anybody has to do is play the tape.

Also, Taylor hasn’t testified yet, which should be interesting.

— Jason McGlothlen (@goddamnedfrank) October 18, 2019