Sen. Lindsey Graham was asked if Trump did anything wrong. He responded by trying to change the subject to Hillary Clinton and then had an outburst when he was called out on it.
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Graham was asked by ABC This Week’s George Stepanonopolus, “Senator Graham, thank you for joining us. Donald Trump said repeatedly that he didn’t do anything wrong, do you believe that?”
Graham answered, “Here is what I believe. We live in America where if you are a Democratic candidate for president, Hillary Clinton. And when an investigation is had about your activity -”
The This Week host stopped him, “No, senator. You’re not answering the question.”
Graham blew up:
No, let me finish. It is ridiculous. I am trying to answer the question from a Republican’s point of view. It may not be acceptable on the show. I don’t like Joe Biden had classified information in the garage. I don’t like that Mike Pence carelessly took information. What I don’t like is a secretary of the state who’s a Democratic candidate for president has people take a hammer to social media devices and break them apart and applied bleach bit to a hard drive to erase e-mails and allow classified information to get on a felon’s computer, Anthony Weiner. Most Republicans believe that we live in a country where Hillary Clinton did the same thing and nothing happened to her.
President Trump will have his day in court, but espionage charges is absolutely ridiculous. He did not provide information for a foreign power or a news organization to damage this country. He’s not a spy. He’s overcharged. Your own boss committed perjury in a civil lawsuit and obstruct justice in a dozen ways and he didn’t get prosecuted. He was impeached.
Republicans Can’t Function Outside Of Conservative Media
Graham’s blow-up happened because a non-conservative media outlet would not allow him to change the subject to Hillary Clinton. If Graham was doing the same interview on Fox News, he would be able to have a whole discussion about Hillary Clinton and why Trump should not be prosecuted.
The same situation happened when Jim Jordan went on CNN and was asked objective questions about Trump’s indictment. Dana Bash wanted to talk about substance while Jordan was only interested in throwing Republican fantasies against the wall to see if anything would stick. Bash ended up telling Jordan that his argument made no sense.
Lindsey Graham has plopped himself into the camp of this is all unfair to Trump, because if Hillary Clinton wasn’t prosecuted, Trump shouldn’t be either. Of course, Hillary Clinton didn’t hide boxes of classified documents, lie to the Department of Justice, and show classified information to other people, so the situations are not the same in key areas, but Lindsey Graham can’t defend Trump, so he is going to talk about Hillary Clinton then get angry if his BS is called out.
Many Republicans are acting like a broken cult that can’t accept reality in response to Donald Trump being indicted.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
