• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, February 22, 2024

How it started: "Russia, if you're listening, I hope you find..."

How it's going: "Chto yest', to yest'."

Oops, I should translate that into English from the original Putin-wing of the Republican party dialect: "It is what it is."

If you haven't been following the presidential campaign news cycle the past 24-hours or so, that is how House Judiciary chair Jim Jordan responded to a press gaggle in which he was asked how House of MAGA plans to move forward with impeachment hearings now that its key witness has been charged with lying to the Justice Department -- and by the way, was getting his info about the Biden family from Russian intel sources.

So let's all repeat, the GPU -- er, I mean GOP -- effort for what it really is, because, "It is what it is."

Jordan's sound bite caps off this mid-week edition of my "Red, White & News" analysis, which began with a cycle of news following the death (make that assassination) of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, including Donald Trump's outrageous personal comparison to Navalny's personal persecution by Putin.