Trump Jr.'s wife says the wedding gift needed no explaining; the president explains it was repaid.

…(cont) That's the list. I'm not going to add to it.

I ran a tab once, at the corner store down the block from the house — the one with the hand-lettered sign in the window, doesn't matter which one. When the owner let me run it, he called it a favor: no rush, pay me when you can. When I settled up three weeks later, he called it exactly that, settling up. Two different words for two different things. A favor doesn't get an invoice. A debt does.

So here's what sits with me. On the 14th, Bettina Trump says the gift needs no explaining. That same day, a sitting member of Congress asks for an explanation anyway. If there's really nothing to explain, I keep wondering what Congressman Garcia thinks he's asking about.

Four days after that, the president stands in front of reporters and says his son already paid Kremlev back. Paid him back for what, exactly, if the gift needed no defending in the first place? You don't pay back a favor. You pay back a loan. Somewhere between the 14th and the 18th, this family's own story changed which one it was.

Ocasio-Cortez said, on the 15th, that the country was being sold out. I don't know what she meant by that specifically — I try to stick to the page in front of me — but I notice she said it the day after the Instagram post and three days before the Oval Office, and the calendar puts those next to each other whether I comment on it or not.

And then today. Tillis — a Republican, one of the president's own — calls the arrangement stupid on stilts. Not illegal, not that I've read. Not under investigation, not that I've read. Stupid on stilts. His words, on CNN, on a Sunday.

Garcia asked his question on the 14th. Today is the 27th. Is he still waiting on his answer? Because in thirteen days of clippings — the kind I keep folded in the glovebox — I haven't found one.

Oh — excuse me, before you go. One more thing, and forgive me, I already read you this number once today. Tillis put Kremlev's net worth somewhere north of three hundred million, maybe closer to four. So which is it: is that the kind of money where a wedding gift doesn't need defending, or the kind of money where it still has to get paid back?