First reactions are important, and my first reaction to the transcript of President Trump’s July 25 phone call with Ukraine’s President Zelensky was, “It looks bad.” Others who, like me, aren’t Trumpists or in the Resistance had the same reaction. It looked bad.

The president disagrees, but he pressed for an investigation of Joe and Hunter Biden, saying: “There’s a lot of talk about Biden’s son, that Biden stopped the prosecution, and a lot of people want to find out about that, so whatever you can do.” Trump had already referred to U.S. support for Ukraine and mentioned a lack of reciprocity, so it’s easy to see the phone call as a shakedown for dirt on Trump’s front-running presidential rival.