Former ethics chief says we've reached a constitutional crisis with Trump's Ukraine-gate

During an MSNBC panel discussion Monday, Walter Shaub, the former director of the United States Office of Government Ethics, said that he believes we've reached the constitutional crisis that many feared.

Last week, it was revealed that Trump asked Ukranian officials to find dirt on former Vice President Joe Biden. When they refused, Trump and Rudy Giuliani invented it. It's unclear if that's why a senior intelligence officer filed a whistleblower complaint, but there have been reports that it is exactly what was discussed in the call to Ukraine's president.

"I think we have to look at this in the larger context," Shaub said of Trump's Ukraine scandal. "There’s people talking about possible criminal violations and analyzing the statutes and I think that’s a mistake in the larger context. This is a constitutional crisis where the president of the United States has solicited an attack on our institution of elections that actually makes us a republic."

He went on to explain that Ukraine was dependent on the Americans after Russia invaded and that Trump has put not only Ukraine's national security at stake but America's too.

"If that’s allowed anything goes," Shaub warned. "The president can use the public office for absolutely any personal benefit, any political benefit. No one will be able to call that wrong again because —"

MSNBC host Katy Tur cut him off to ask why Republicans don't see it as a danger to America and why they're unwilling to stand up for national security.

"You know, that’s been the most surprising thing to me," Shaub said of the GOP. "When I left government, I was convinced there are a number of Republican senators who were going to say, 'This is the line. You cannot cross and hold whatever that line is,' and so far, we have seen no hint of a line. I think I was naive enough to believe that their questions to me and others about the integrity of government, I thought they were serious about that. I don't know what to make of their inability to act. I’m sure there are political reasons. I’m still naive enough to believe there are people in this country in power on both sides of the aisle who care about the republic. I just wish they’d start showing it and not acting out of fear to hide their condemnation of what’s going on."

See the full panel discussion below: