How many questions does it take?
How much chaos does the GOP need before Republican leaders acknowledge that Donald Trump has a real Russia - indeed a real foreign relations - problem?
Tuesday morning we woke to learn Trump finally fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson - via Twitter. How classy.
Officials acknowledge that it was Tillerson who cracked open the door for talks with North Korea - despite Trump's dismissive comment last year that Tillerson was wasting his time trying to talk to "Little Rocket Man," our president's taunting name for North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
It's true enough that Tillerson and Trump never got along, but it seems few people with even a hint of scruples can get along with Trump. It's also true that Tillerson, a former Exxon CEO, came to his position with no foreign policy achievement beyond getting an award from Vladimir Putin for helping broker an oil deal.
Tillerson was one of the administration's strongest critics of Russia. For months, Tillerson said Russia clearly interfered in the 2016 U.S. election. Yet Trump still can't bring himself to criticize Russia - or even acknowledge what all of his intelligence services tell him: That Russia was behind efforts not only to sway public opinion through social media, but also to hack Democrat campaign computers and voter list data in multiple states.
Tillerson's criticism of Russia may have been the last straw for Trump. On Monday, Tillerson told reporters he was "very, very concerned" with Russia's growing aggression. He called the poisoning of an ex-Russian spy and his daughter with a Soviet-developed, military-grade nerve agent in the United Kingdom "a really egregious act" that appears to have "clearly" come from Russia.
British Prime Minister Theresa May also pointed a warning finger at Russia, saying Monday that it is "highly likely" Russia is responsible for the poisoning, either directly or because it lost control of the nerve agent.
But Trump? Nah. He said he would speak with British Prime Minister Theresa May about the poisoning.
He later pledged "solidarity" with Britain.
The next thing we know, Tillerson is out, along with his loyal under-secretary, Steve Goldstein.
Timing is everything
Trump's twitter version of his favorite reality TV line - "you're fired" - came just hours after his all-caps tweet about House Intelligence Committee Republicans closing their investigation of Russian election interference Monday, sans several really important interviews.
"THE HOUSE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE HAS, AFTER A 14 MONTH LONG IN-DEPTH INVESTIGATION, FOUND NO EVIDENCE OF COLLUSION OR COORDINATION BETWEEN THE TRUMP CAMPAIGN AND RUSSIA TO INFLUENCE THE 2016 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION," Trump wrote.
Democrats on the same committee learned from Twitter and news accounts that their committee probe was prematurely and misleadingly closed. Again, how classy.
The House Republicans said their 150-page report - made without consulting their Democratic committee colleagues - contradicts the U.S. intelligence community's unwavering conclusion that the goal of the Russian government effort was to boost Trump's campaign.
"We don't think that's supported by the underlying data," Texas Rep. Mike Conaway, the Republican leading the probe, said in a phone interview. Conaway said some Trump aides may have shown bad judgment in meeting with Kremlin-linked individuals, but the meetings didn't amount to collusion. He termed the Russian goal as one of sowing confusion and discord, rather than something to help Trump.
In other words, the GOP is still playing the "nothing-to-see-here" card.
Doesn't that make you wonder why three Trump aides - Michael Flynn, George Papadopoulos and Rick Gates have already pleaded guilty? Doesn't it make you wonder why attorney Alex van der Zwaan, employed by a law firm hired by the Ukraine Ministry of Justice in 2012, has pleaded guilty to lying about his interactions with Gates? Doesn't it make you wonder why Californian Richard Pinedo, who sold bank accounts to Russians meddling in the election, pleaded guilty to using stolen identities to set up the bank accounts earlier this month? Doesn't it make you wonder why on that same day, Mueller's team charged 13 Russians in an indictment making a direct allegation of illegal Russian meddling during the campaign?
Trump's parade of 'best people'
Meanwhile, there's another empty position at the White House: Trump's long-time body man, John McEntee, was fired and escorted out of the White House on Monday for an "unspecified security issue," according to The Wall Street Journal.
McEntee joined the Trump campaign as a volunteer in 2015 and rose quickly in the organization. CNN reports that he is under investigation by the U.S. Secret Service and Department of Homeland Security for serious financial crimes.
But minutes after news of McEntee's departure broke, the Trump campaign announced that McEntee would be joining Trump's re-election effort as a senior adviser for campaign operations.
Yes, you read that right. He's thrown out of the White House under investigation for serious financial crimes, but Trump's re-election campaign welcomes him with open arms.
Like Trump is fond of saying: He only hires "the best people."
The best people like Michael Flynn, Gary Cohn, Hope Hicks, Omarosa Manigault Newman, Rob Porter, Sean Spicer, Reince Priebus, Steve Bannon, Tom Price, Sebastian Gorka, Anthony "the Mooch" Scaramucci - we'll spare you all 25 names of ousted senior officials. (And 25 doesn't include ousted deputies and not-so-senior officials.)