It wasn't even an off-the-cuff comment. It was a statement drafted by, argued over and ultimately adopted by the RNC's Resolutions Committee, in which, amid the usual insane Fox News talking points, the RNC formally censured Rep. Lynn Cheney and Rep. Adam Kinzinger for participating in the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection. And there it was at the end of the first page:

I remember the horror I felt on Jan. 6 as the U.S. Capitol, our Capitol, was overrun and damaged and ransacked, and our politicians made to run for their lives, by MAGA fools who believed Trump's lies about the 2020 election.

I remember hoping on that day, and subseqent days, that maybe this was a turning point, the moment when the Trump-mad, Fox-mad fever finally broke, and Republicans became responsible U.S. citizens again. 

Then the Fox News of it all picked up anew, and they began to lie and lie and lie, and live and breathe the lie, until the lie was all that mattered anymore.

And now we're here. 

“Legitimate political discourse.” The worst attack on American democracy since the U.S. Civil War. “Legitimate political discourse.” 

The Republican party has just shown itself once more to be illegitimate. It's now them or American democracy. There's really no middle ground.