Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., arrives for a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2019, for Attorney General nominee William Barr. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Republicans did a terrific job during the IG report hearing on Wednesday.

You can check out some of the action we reported here.

But Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) got to the heart of it.

He asked which was worse: a foreign government meddling in our elections, or our own government meddling in our elections?

He noted that while we expect foreign governments to meddle, and we needed to do more to protect against it, that this was perhaps the first time in history that our own government had meddled.

Then he made the most important point that the media has been missing since 2016.

"Which is worse, is it worse to have a foreign government trying to meddle in our elections or is it worse to have our own government meddling in the election?

"Because that's exactly what this report shows." pic.twitter.com/sSrvDjAXpk

— Elizabeth Harrington (@LizRNC) December 11, 2019

“There’s one actor here who hasn’t gotten the credit that they collectively deserve. And that’s the Democrat National Committee. I just think, you know, I’ve heard my friends on the other side of the aisle complain about Hillary Clinton’s campaign, and how ineffective it was, the DNC didn’t do a good job in 2016. I beg to differ,” Hawley exclaimed, hitting the table for emphasis. “This is the most incredible, the DNC pays for the Steele Dossier, solicits the Steele Dossier, and then gets the Federal Bureau of Investigation, to go get FISA warrants, surveil an American citizen, surveil a presidential campaign, all on the basis of this manufactured garbage that they paid for. I mean, that’s extraordinary. That has got to be a first time in history.”

He then asked IG Horowitz if it was the first time. Horowitz said he wasn’t an expert but believed so.

And that’s what’s made this whole thing so shocking, that effectively we’ve known the Democrats have done this for more than two years. But they’ve suffered absolutely no consequences for the chaos that they’ve wrought and the damage they’ve done.

Indeed, they’re still doing everything they can to push the fiction and to invent new fictions to try to undermine the President.

This is the real upending of norms and our constitutional order.

There have to be consequences for the people behind it.

Democrats should not be able to have the power to do this again.