It was a major miscalculation for President Trump to build his first defense against the charge that he withheld military aid to Ukraine in a pressure campaign to hurt Joe Biden on a foundation of discrediting the initial whistleblower. It now appears that additional eyewitnesses of parts of the scheme are coming out of the woodwork. In addition to that, State Department employees and others in the Executive Branch now appear to be willing to defy the White House and willingly comply with congressional subpoenas. The story is coming out and the president’s first effort to save himself is in ruins.

It never made sense to attack the whistleblower while, at the same time, releasing a loose transcript that appeared to verify everything he had alleged. There were only two operable defenses: that what he did was justified or that what he did was a mistake but not one serious enough to warrant removal from office.

He has opted to try the first of these rather than the second, and I think that was a major blunder too. It’s also very bad for his party and for the country, because anyone unwilling to admit that what he did is wrong is on morally and legally insupportable ground.

This is going to become clearer and clearer as we hear the testimony of one witness after another who had a serious problem with the president’s decision-making and behavior.

Trump clearly committed an egregious crime here, but he could have done a much better job by arguing that he erred and won’t make the same kind of mistake again. This would have placed the debate on the appropriate punishment, and that’s a place where Republican lawmakers would be much comfortable waging battle.

As it stands, few want to be near the president at all, let alone go on the record excusing him.