“This is a precedent that will destroy the concept of free and fair elections,” Tapper said on Monday. “It’s not really picking any sort of bold moral stance to say that you can’t have that. I don’t know why so few people are willing to say it.”

If impeachment is largely fought in the court of public opinion, Republicans lawmakers are barely mounting a defense on television. Since the Sept. 25 release of a rough transcript of Trump urging Ukraine’s president to investigate the Bidens, none of the 53 Republican Senators have appeared on MSNBC, though a source told POLITICO the network has put out invitations to them. Just four of 197 Republican House members have appeared on MSNBC, one of whom isn’t running for reelection.

Seven Republican House members have appeared on CNN during this time period, but no senators have done so. CNN anchor Jim Sciutto said Friday that more 60 Republican members of the House and Senate didn’t respond when asked if Trump went too far in publicly asking China to investigate a political rival.

“GOP Lawmakers Silent On Trump’s Call For China To Dig Up Biden Dirt,” read the on-screen graphic, followed by the names of the lawmakers.

One Republican on that list, Johnson, appeared two days later on Sunday’s “Meet the Press” in a contentious interview that quickly went viral.

Todd became visibly exasperated with Johnson after he deflected the host’s question about comments he made to the Wall Street Journal about Ukraine to talk about emails by former FBI agent Peter Strzok, a recurring character in the conservative media narrative of a “deep state” out to get Trump. “I have no idea why a Fox News conspiracy, propaganda stuff is popping up on here," Todd said.

Todd drew praise for his aggressive handling of Johnson. “Something has happened to Chuck Todd,” tweeted NYU journalism professor and media critic Jay Rosen. “I view @MeetThePress almost every week. Today his tone — I mean his voice itself — was different, as if the gravity of events had sunk in and his patience with denial had run out.”

The tense exchange between Todd and Johnson, filled with cross talk, “didn’t make for enjoyable television or helpful civil discourse,” wrote The Washington Post’s Margaret Sullivan, but “it was the right thing for Todd to do.”

Another GOP senator, Missouri’s Roy Blunt, visited CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday, where host Margaret Brennan asked if it was “appropriate to ask for a foreign government to interfere in the election.” Blunt suggested the president was joking when he called on China to investigate the Bidens, a response that stalwart Trump defender Rep. Jim Jordan echoed on ABC’s “This Week” while evading questions from host George Stephanopoulos.

Republican lawmakers have successfully dodged questions in the past about Trump’s conduct, such as an outrageous tweet or offensive remark, and the news cycle tends to move on. Several Republicans told reporters upon leaving Washington on Sept 26 that they hadn’t read the whistleblower complaint, even though it was published online hours earlier and dominated news coverage.

But impeachment isn’t going to quickly disappear from the headlines and Republicans’ silence has become a story itself following two weeks of revelations, including explosive text messages among diplomats, along with Trump’s shocking call on the White House lawn for China, too, to investigate the Bidens. “Republicans Mostly Silent After Trump’s Ukraine Revelations,” read a CNN chyron Monday morning.

Republicans considering speaking out may fear stoking Trump’s ire and becoming a target of his allies in conservative media. Trump ripped Utah Sen. Mitt Romney for tweeting that Trump’s “brazen and unprecedented” calls for foreign nations to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter are “wrong and appalling.”

Romney hasn’t provided that critique in a TV interview, unlike Texas Republican Rep. Will Hurd, who said last week on CNN that exchanges between U.S. diplomats over efforts for Ukraine to investigate the Bidens were “damning.” Hurd, who also appeared on MSNBC and Fox News in recent weeks, has already announced he’s not running for reelection.

Hurd is one of 19 House Republicans who have appeared on Fox News during weekdays from 6 a.m. to midnight since Sept. 25, according to data provided by progressive watchdog Media Matters. A few Republican Senators, including Ted Cruz, Rick Scott, Rob Portman, and Lindsey Graham, have appeared during that time period.

Graham expressed criticism of Trump on Monday on “Fox & Friends,” though it was over his decision to pull out of Syria and abandon U.S.-allied Kurdish fighters. Some other Republican lawmakers have criticized the Syria decision, while also blasting the NBA for apologizing to China after the general manager of the Houston Rockets expressed support on Twitter for pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong.

Tapper noted lawmakers “rightly condemning the NBA for kowtowing to China” amid the comparative silence around foreign intervention in domestic politics.

“The idea of China interfering in the sanctity of the NBA is somehow incredibly offensive to them,” he said, “whereas the same standard for American elections results in the sound of crickets.”