tapdance

During the hearing, however, he was doing a tapdance, pretending he was merely talking about having "standards" and claiming that women should not be denied equal opportunity if they meet them.

Vance appears to believe he's found a nifty little tapdance that allows him to both back Trump's ridiculous lies while also holding himself out as too smart to really believe all that nonsense.

There are a million variations of the same Trumpian tapdance: Take them seriously only when doing so benefits them, but otherwise, let's all just pretend that the assault on democracy is just idle chatter.

The whole tapdance about chivalry and "respect" for women has given way to the Trumpian style — but with a couple of Bible verses attached.

McCarthy's little tapdance is meant to hoodwink mainstream political reporters into believing that Republicans aren't actually an anti-democratic party lining up behind a fascist who literally tried to overthrow a democratic election.