WASHINGTON Congressional Republicans today are lining up to support military aid to Ukraine just two years after backing then-President Donald Trump s extortion scheme against that country, apparently in acknowledgment that their earlier choices could come back to haunt them in this autumns midterms.

I have zero problems with this phone call. Theres no quid pro quo here, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham said on Sept. 29, 2019 , defending Trumps attempt to coerce Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy into smearing Joe Biden , the 2020 Democratic challenger Trump most feared, by withholding military aid to Ukraine.

This type of diplomacy is hard to watch but nonetheless has existed and hardly rises to an impeachable offense, said South Dakota Sen. Mike Rounds on Nov. 7, 2019 .

In recent days, those same Republicans and many others have come around to urge Trumps successor, Democrat Joe Biden, to provide more military assistance to Ukraine in the face of Russian dictator Vladimir Putins invasion.

Vladimir Putin is a cold, calculating killer. We must continue to support the people of Ukraine as they defend their country, Rounds wrote on Twitter on Feb. 25.

I have never seen a leader rise to the occasion more than President @ZelenskyyUa has done, Graham added a day later.

You can see by the mad scramble to support Zelenskyy and Ukraine that they are afraid of the consequences of their past miscreance, said Norm Ornstein, a scholar at the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute.