As you wake up this morning, imagine the rest of the 2020 race given the WH team’s argument a president can do virtually anything to get elected, including accepting information from foreign countries, if the president deems his/her re-election in the national interest.

2/ These are the answered questions:

Can you accept dirt from a foreign government? Yes.
Can you pressure a foreign govt for that dirt? Yes.
Can that foreign govt be corrupt therefore raising questions about said dirt? Yes.

3/ That leaves the unanswered ones:

Can you accept dirt from authoritarian govts?
Can that dirt be stolen or hacked by those govts?
Who is to vet the dirt, if anyone, to assess whether it’s credible?

4/ Would DNC emails stolen and supplied by Russia fit under this umbrella?
Stolen Podesta emails?

I’ve had fringe Trump supporters make that argument re 2016 to me already. Now, it’s being repeated by one of the president’s lawyers on the floor of the US senate.

5/ Big picture, has the WH defense effectively opened the door to a repeat of Russian 2016 interference but now with a congressional deal of approval?