1. First off, what he did was not illegal. Demanding a foreign country do things for us when we give them money is standard quid pro quo. You have a right to ask a drunk on the street who you just gave $5 to spend it on food and not a drink. Well, the president was asking for Ukraine to clean up it's corruption, the same as Obama demanded they do. He also asked to check on Biden who may have illegally used his position to violate US as well as Ukrainian law helping his son get a job and escape criminal investigation, all part of the corruption going on in the Ukraine. Of course there's a side benefit that Biden is a political foe. However, how is that different than Democrat congressman investigating Trump for the last three years for potential criminal activity knowing that they would benefit if it turns out Trump commiting a crime? If Trump isn't above the law, neither is Vice President Biden. If Democrats can get a side benefit politically from an legal investigation, why can't the Republicans? None of it is illegal. It's just politics.
It's illegal at 2 levels:
1. Asking a foreign leader for help against a political opponent is illegal even without a quid Pro quo. It's easy to understand why, this is a threat to democracy. Think about how any former President of the US would have been treated had they done the same thing (and you can be 100% it would known had they done it),
2. Quid Pro Quos are illegal too, even if the White House says they do it all the time, it doesn't make it any more legal just like drunks driving drunk every day aren't any more allowed to do so. It just makes it profoundly illegal.
2. I'm glad you brought this up. Trump is actually a liberal in many of his beliefs. Being a New Yorker helps. He never got excited about race issues, gays, and issues like that. He's worked with these people all his life. He's a cosmopolitan who lives and works and helped build the largest liberal, Democrat city in the USA, bar none. Remember, he won the election convincing traditional, blue-collar Democrats to vote for him. They felt he was one of them. Many Republicans actually find he's too liberal for them, certainly not a VP Pence. Republican newspapers still support him because his policies are still miles ahead conservatively of liberals like Warren and AOC. Unfortunately, these newspapers and media, except for Fox, don't have the same power to influence as do the rest of the liberal, Democrat media. So the latter set the tone and spin of the news. It's very frustrating for Republicans to realize the press is almost never on their side.
As mentioned, this isn't about how the press depicts Trump's actions, it's about how illegal they are.
Besides, I keep wondering how far Trump would have to go for you and other to drop your apparently unconditional support.
Cheers,
Bernard