It was all about the midterms. The careerist GOP and their big donors hate Trump. They did not want to spend one penny of political capital defending him.
Removing Rosenstein for his conflicts of interest, confirming a new AG, reigning in Mueller and addressing REAL interference in our elections by “allies” (foreign spying on Trump) would have dominated the run up to the midterms.
The GOP wanted no part of that. Regardless of how many crimes the Democrats committed. They’d much preferred to have a hobbled POTUS and the ability to shape the beltway agenda (Omnibus garbage bill, no wall funding, etc.)
That’s an interesting take, Lodi.