And yet they’re still defending him.

Democrats said two bombshell reports from The New York Times and Washington Post regarding President Donald Trump and Russia have raised serious questions. Meanwhile, their Republican counterparts downplayed the new reporting and asked Americans to consider instead the president’s actions on Russia.

We are considering those – the ones he hasn’t fully concealed.

Republicans, meanwhile, pushed back strongly on the subtext of these two reports and echoed the administration’s rebuttal about being tougher on Russia than former President Barack Obama.

“You’ve seen time and time again with sanctions, with other things, President Trump standing up against Russia,” Republican Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana said on “This Week.” “This whole idea of collusion, they’ve investigated this, the Mueller investigation’s gone on for over a year, they found no collusion between Trump and Russia.”

With “other things” – what other things? We’ve seen Trump huddling with Putin in corners, flattering him on stages, initiating friendly handshakes with him at every opportunity.

Looking at The Post’s story regarding documentation of his conversations with Putin, Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas said on “Meet the Press” that he thinks “it’s premature” for Congress to subpoena any records of those conversations.

On “State of the Union,” Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin said Trump may have decided to bury the transcripts because he had previously been “burned by leaks of other private conversations.”

“This is not a traditional president,” Johnson said, “He has unorthodox means but he is president of the United States. It’s pretty much up to him in terms of who he wants to read into his conversations with world leaders.”

In other words he’s a dictator, an absolute monarch, a god-king. His powers are whatever he wants them to be; he is above the law; he can do whatever he likes.

That’s not actually how any of this is supposed to work, but the dictators have taken over, so “supposed to work” cuts no ice any more.