This column originally appeared in Whitmire’s newsletter, Alabamafication. Sign up here for free.

The Window of Truth is open.

The window is closing.

After the Access Hollywood tapes exposed Donald Trump as a boastful sexual predator, Republicans scrambled. In the hours after the recordings were made public, two prominent Alabama politicians shared their thoughts freely — Rep. Martha Roby and Rep. Bradley Byrne.

Roby never wholly backed down. Byrne later recanted. Nonetheless, neither of them holds public office today — in part, because they told the truth when it mattered.

And before they could get on board with a bigger lie.

Likewise, in the hours after the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, Republican leaders said enough was enough. Today, many of those same folks will tell you they were never in danger and the attack was a friendly protest.

When Katie Britt bombed her rebuttal to the State of the Union address, it took days for her Republican colleagues to convince themselves, much less others, that she had done a good job. But they came around and insisted we couldn’t trust our own eyes and ears.

RELATED: The Katie Britt retcon has begun. Believe what you saw.

Something similar is happening today, almost a week after President Joe Biden’s disastrous debate showing.

In the hours after the debate, Democrats were at a loss for what they had seen — the president glitching out on live TV.

Today, that silence has been broken by a chorus of sycophants desperately redirecting attention to what Trump might do if elected again. That’s not an unimportant subject, but it’s also not unrelated to Biden’s ability to beat him this fall, or lead in the event he can beat Trump. As we call it in my kitchen counter debate club, they’re “changing the subject.”

What we’re experiencing is what I’ve come to call the Window of Truth.

When something outrageous happens — when we all see something shocking and unmediated — there’s a window of time when the political parties haven’t written their talking points, much less distributed them. There’s no time for everyone to get on the same page. Everyone has to think for themselves.

There’s a lag between when we see what we see and when politicians and their consultants and surrogates tell us what they want us to believe we saw.

The window opens.

It’s in those hours when the truth might be within our reach.

But those whom the truth hurts will regroup and reorganize. Many around them will fall into line.

The window closes.

Democrats close to the president — staffers and consultants who are trying to preserve their proximity to power — are trying to convince the public that he’s the best person to defeat Donald Trump. And they are layering on excuses.

First, he had a cold.

Then he had bad debate prep.

Then it was jet lag — nearly a week and a half after he traveled.

To paraphrase Groucho Marx, they have narratives, and if you don’t like them, they have others.

They’re clamoring to slam the window shut. If they can’t, he will have to drop out. If they can, we get to live with the consequences.

Our job in the media is to hold that window open as long as we can. We might get our fingers slammed in it. We often do. That’s part of the job.

But keep looking while you can, while there’s still a crack of sunlight shining through.