Sen. Lindsey Graham lashed out at the second highly partisan impeachment of former President Donald Trump during an appearance on “Fox News Sunday” with Chris Matthews.
The host introduced the segment noting that the Senate, for the second time, failed to convict Trump, though the 57-43 vote on Saturday following the shortest impeachment proceedings in the country’s history was not as close as the first acquittal about a year ago.
Asked to respond, Graham, a South Carolina Republican and one of the former president’s staunchest allies, said he talked to Trump Saturday evening following the vote and said he was grateful to his attorneys and to those who voted to acquit.
(Courtesy: Fox News)
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Graham went on to say that he will travel to Mar-a-Lago in Florida next week to see Trump and that he told him “the MAGA movement” should continue with the former president setting the agenda of a ‘united’ Republican Party.
But then Graham had a warning of sorts for Democrats who regularly overreach when they have complete control: The ease with which they have twice impeached Trump will come back to bite them in the future if the GOP retakes the House, at a minimum.
“I thought the impeachment trial was not only unconstitutional, I condemn what happened on January 6, but the process they used to impeach this president was an affront to rule of law,” Graham noted.
“We’ve opened Pandora’s Box to future presidents. And if you use this model, I don’t know how Kamala Harris doesn’t get impeached if the Republicans take over the House. Because she actually bailed out rioters, and one of the rioters went back to the streets and broke somebody’s head open. So we’ve opened Pandora’s Box here, and I’m sad for the country,” Graham continued.
In addition, Harris told one cable news program during the height of BLM and Antifa violence last year that protests should continue — which critics say actually amounted to the incitement of violence and rebellion against civil authorities.
As for Graham, he pushed back against Matthews’ leading question in suggesting that Trump was responsible for the Capitol riots, noting — correctly — that a) the former president’s speech is constitutionally protected; and b) he never told supporters to storm the building.
Graham did offer some criticism of Trump, however, saying that the narratives he pushed about the election having been rigged or stolen were over the top — but of course, everyone continues to conveniently forget the Time magazine report earlier this month essentially confirming most of what Trump has alleged.
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“His behavior after the election was over the top,” Graham said, adding that “there was a pre-planned element” to the riot. He also said that Congress should form “a 9/11” type of commission to examine all aspects of the Capitol assault to include what House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) knew about it beforehand and what the former president did afterward.
Interestingly, no one in Congress has suggested a similar commission to study the origins and pre-planned nature of the ongoing riots and violent demonstrations in major U.S. cities that have been occurring for most of the past year.
My, how things change when the Barbarians are at Congress’ gate.
