Milbank: Attempting to protect Trump takes a herculean effort

The juxtaposition between Comey’s gripping account and the Trump officials’ refusal to answer questions did no credit to the embattled president. Comey’s testimony stated that Trump told him, “I need loyalty, I expect loyalty.” Comey surmised that Trump asked him to drop the FBI probe of former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and to “lift the cloud” of the Russia probe. The situation was so awkward that Comey didn’t want to be alone with the president. Comey had told the president at the time that he wasn’t a target of the probe, but Trump fired him when he didn’t go public exonerating Trump.

Against this powerful account, Coats, Rosenstein, NSA chief Michael Rogers and acting FBI director Andrew McCabe offered hours of nothing. A couple of them asserted that they didn’t “feel” pressured, but nobody would say what Trump had asked them. It wasn’t because the information was classified; there is no serious basis for that.

“What is the legal basis for your refusal to testify to this committee?” asked Sen. Angus King, the normally mild-mannered independent from Maine. “I’m not sure I have a legal basis,” admitted Coats.

An ‘Orwellian’ situation

Rogers spent much of the hearing glowering at the table in front of him. His exchange with King was even worse.

King: “Why are you not answering?” Rogers: “Because I feel it is inappropriate, Senator.”

King: “What you feel isn’t relevant, Admiral. … Is it an invocation of executive privilege? If there is, then let’s know about it. If there isn’t, answer the questions.” Rogers: “I stand by the comments that I’ve made. I’m not interested in repeating myself, Sir. And I don’t mean that in a contentious way.”

There were relatively few partisan splits, although the committee chairman, Richard Burr, R-N.C., did a bit of mansplaining to rookie Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., silencing her when she tried to pin Rosenstein down.

There was consensus that the officials were shielding Trump, and clumsily. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., noted the absurdity of Wednesday’s Washington Post having a full account, with names and dates, of how Trump tried to get Coats to intervene with Comey to back off the Flynn probe. “And yet here in a public hearing before the American people, we can’t talk about what was described in detail in this morning’s Washington Post,” McCain told Coats, calling it “Orwellian.”

At least that’s easier to pronounce than “herculean.”