When it comes to defending President Trump on Capitol Hill, few are as vociferous and vocal in their vengeance as Senator Lindsey Graham.
This can be a tough job, of course, as President Trump marches very much to the beat of his own drum. At times, his brash tweet-storms put his supporters in a difficulty place in which they wish to defend the man but not the message.
Graham has been a stalwart in Camp Trump, however, only truly disagreeing publicly with the Commander in Chief on the subject of Syria – and it was a short-lived grievance at that.
Now, on impeachment, Graham is taking his defense of Donald Trump to new extremes, simply writing off the Democrats’ “formal impeachment inquiry” as nothing more than a load of manure.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., took aim at the latest impeachment inquiry developments on Tuesday and called the process a “bunch of B.S.”
He has “written the whole process off,” Graham told reporters when asked if he would read newly released transcripts of testimony given by former U.S. envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker and Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union. Democrats released hundreds of pages of testimony on Tuesday that reflected a mixed picture of whether or not President Trump presented a “quid pro quo” of some sort, involving either the release of U.S. military aid or a meeting at the White House.
The transcripts also revealed that Sondland revised his prior testimony to reflect that he told a top Ukrainian official U.S. aid likely wouldn’t resume unless the country released a corruption statement. Many Democrats interpreted this as evidence of a quid pro quo.
Of Sondland’s revised testimony, Graham said Tuesday: “That’s his opinion.”
Adding a bit of gravity to Graham’s insinuation is the fact that the Democrats have been completely unwilling to employ their power to hold defiant witnesses in contempt. Were these investigators under the impression that they had the legal or constitutional high ground, we would be seeing a wild flurry of contempt charges and penalties flying.
We’re not, and that’s the writing on the wall that Lindsey Graham is invoking here.
