H.R. McMaster is no longer beholden to Donald John Trump, who hired him as national security adviser to the president of the United States.

I mention this because McMaster, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant general who got the boot from Trump over policy disagreements within the West Wing, spoke the truth today in answering a direct question: Is it appropriate for the president to ask a foreign power to interfere in our electoral process?

McMaster’s response? “Of course it’s not appropriate.”

This is worth noting because some key Republican lawmakers — who also are not beholden to the president — cannot answer that question. Joni Ernst of Iowa couldn’t speak the truth. Nor could Cory Gardner of Colorado. Jim Jordan of Ohio danced all around the question. None of them answered the question.

Why the reticence? I guess they are frightened over what Trump might do in response.

Then again, in theory they are answerable only to the people who elect them. They are not answerable to the president, who presides over a separate branch of government. The executive and legislative branches are “co-equal” in power. They are supposed to serve as checks on each other.

However, we are left now to hear only from those of the president’s political party who no longer serve in government to speak the proverbial “truth to power.”

Shameful.