We will ultimately learn what went so wrong and accountability, of course, is essential. But before we can even get to that, there is the tragedy of this moment. Halyna Hutchins was 42, from Ukraine, a rising star in her field. The wife of Matthew Hutchins, the mother of a boy Andros Hutchins. Heartbreaking for normal people. But there's something about our politics right now that is driving people away from our shared humanity.

Republican Congresswoman Lauren Boebert of Colorado apparently spent some time and did some digging and found an Alec Baldwin tweet from 2014 about the "Hands up, don't shoot" movement. Baldwin, is, of course, not only a progressive but very aggressive and outspoken about liberal issues, including gun control. The Colorado congresswoman thought it was funny to exploit "Hands up, don't shoot" to make a joke at the expense of Baldwin but more importantly really to make a joke at the expense of Halyna Hutchins and her husband Matthew and their son Andros.

More disappointing, perhaps, was a tweet from J.D. Vance, a former marine, Yale Law grad, author of "Hillbilly Elegy." Vance was even for a time a CNN contributor, hired because of his perceived insight and empathy. Vance is a conservative for whom a lot of folks once had great hope would rise to become a real leader but he's running in the Senate Republican primary in Ohio that seems to have become the fear factor for American politics, with contestants positioned against one another, as to who can confirmatively appeal best to the lowest common denominator.

Vance, joking, asked for Twitter to remove its ban on Donald Trump, because, quote, "We need Alec Baldwin tweets." In other words, Vance appears to be saying we need to see Donald Trump attack Alec Baldwin hours after this tragedy, at this moment, to exploit this horror in which an innocent woman, mother, wife, artist was killed.

Vance seems to want Trump to attack and mock for a global audience Alec Baldwin for killing a woman in what almost certainly was a tragic accident, regardless of the pain of Matthew Hutchins or Andros Hutchins. And however this impacts Baldwin, and really, I mean, how might such an incident impact you?

And he did this -- J.D. Vance, he did this why? Presumably because he thinks it will help him win supporters. He did it to win votes. In other words, the cruelty is a feature of his candidacy, not a bug.

Vance is seemingly following the playbook of Donald Trump, whose response to the death of Secretary Colin Powell a few days ago was to issue a statement attacking Powell. Following similar attacks that he made against the late John McCain and the late John Dingell, after they had died.

Violations of basic decency, ones we see repeatedly with the Republican Party's embrace of individuals such as Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene from Georgia. Her reaction in 2018 to a deadly fire in the Western United States was to go on Facebook and speculate that wealthy Jewish Americans might be using lasers to cause the fires to make money somehow. A deranged anti-Semitic conspiracy theory. Nuts. One that was brought up by Congresswoman Liz Cheney when Marjorie Taylor Greene started berating Cheney on the House floor this week.

Now, Cheney has been ostracized by her party for standing against Trump lies and for wanting to get to the bottom of the deadly insurrection on January 6th. Green, well, she was described by one Democratic congressman as seeming rather gleeful on that day, January 6th. Though Green staff denies it.

Either way, ask yourself, which of these congresswomen is more likely to be given a speaking slot at the 2024 Republican Convention? A longtime Republican official texted me after J.D. Vance's tweet, quote, "being a horrible person," he wrote, "is now actually a job requirement in this party," unquote.

I hope to God that that Republican official was wrong.