There’s talk going around Resistance circles that when seven U.S. lawmakers, all Republicans, met with top Russian officials in Moscow over the Fourth of July recess, they didn’t even bring up Russia’s efforts to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. They also, according to the story, steered clear of other touchy issues like Russia’s annexation of Crimea and intervention in Ukraine.

“They had no interest in confronting Russian officials over their election interference, preferring instead to let bygones be bygones,” wrote MSNBC’s Steve Benen on the network’s MaddowBlog. “There was no reason for these Republicans to give the Kremlin a pass on its misdeeds, but they did. There was no reason for the GOP lawmakers to exclude election meddling and the fate of Crimea from their discussions, but they did that, too.”