South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham told Fox News on Monday night that if Democrats call witnesses during President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial that Republicans will call on Democrats to testify as witnesses who have used inflammatory language themselves.
“Senator, I know you’ve been talking about the issue of bringing in, you know, witnesses. I’m in favor of it. I want this trial to go on,” Fox News host Sean Hannity said. “I want to interview Chuck [Schumer], I want to interview Joe Biden, I want to interview Kamala [Harris], I want to interview [Nancy] Pelosi, I want to interview Maxine Waters. I want to interview Cory Booker, Eric Holder, I got a whole list. Would you consider looking at my list?”
“Here’s what I can tell you, if the House managers want to call one witness, the defense is going to call all the people you named and then some,” Graham said. “To my colleagues tomorrow. There are 100 of us, what we do today is going to make history for the rest of the time America exists. What Democrats have done is basically declared war on the presidency itself. The impeachment in the House took place without a hearing, without one witness being called, and without a lawyer for the president of the United States. You can’t get a traffic ticket based on the procedures that were used to impeach President Trump. And we’re also impeaching a man who’s out of office. When you combine a snap impeachment with an impeachment of a president who’s out of office, you’re going to destroy the presidency itself. I know you hate Trump, but please pull back before we set in motion the destruction of the presidency by never-ending impeachments.”
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TRANSCRIPT:
SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS HOST: Now as the Biden administration continues to issue pink slips to 1000s and 1000s and 1000s of American oil and gas workers as part of this radical climate change fantasy, Jen Psaki today was unable to even explain when, where these new mysterious green energy jobs, the millions that they’re promising, would appear. Not a good moment, take a look.
[START VIDEO]
PETER DOOCY: When it is and where it is that they can go for their green job and that is something the administration has promised.
JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Well, I certainly welcome you to present your data of all the 1000s and 1000s of people who won’t be getting a green job. Maybe next time you’re here, you can present that.
DOOCY: So how about this, but the laborers International Union of North America said the Keystone decision will cost 1000 existing union jobs and 10,000 projected construction jobs.
PSAKI: Well, what Mr. Trumka also indicated in the same interview was that President Biden has proposed a climate plan with transformative investments and infrastructure, and laid out a plan that will not only create millions of good union jobs, but also help tackle the climate crisis.
[END VIDEO]
HANNITY: Jen has a job, as does everyone else. Where are these people going to get the job that work full time that need to put food on their table, pay the rent, pay the mortgage, pay the car payment, pay insurance or the truck payment? And where are they going to put away money for college and put away money for old things like retirement? Meanwhile, over on Capitol Hill, Senator Lindsey Graham calling out the Democrats impeachment madness, because despite no case, despite no evidence, no chance of conviction and a massive double standard, Democrats still want to hold this unconstitutional sham trial with a predetermined outcome anyway, and create yet another pointless spectacle inside the sewer, the swamp chamber. Here to explain more, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham.
Senator, I know you’ve been talking about the issue of bringing in, you know, witnesses, I’m in favor of it. I want this trial to go on. I want to interview Chuck, I want to interview Joe Biden, I want to interview Kamala, I want to interview Pelosi, I want to interview Maxine Waters. I want to interview Cory Booker, Eric Holder, I got a whole list. Would you consider looking at my list?
LINDSEY GRAHAM, SENATOR FROM SOUTH CAROLINA: Yeah, I’ll be glad to look at it. But unlike you, I actually have to sit there and listen to all this.
HANNITY: That’s a good point. I’m not gonna be watching every minute.
GRAHAM: I have to. Yeah, I gotta listen to this crap. So I hope by Sunday or Monday, the trial will be over. Here’s what I can tell you. If the House managers want to call one witness, the defense is going to call all the people you named then and then some. To my colleagues tomorrow. There are 100 of us, what we do today is going to make history for the rest of the time [that] America exists. What Democrats have done is basically declared war on the presidency itself. The impeachment in the House took place without a hearing, without one witness being called, and without a lawyer for the president United States. You can’t get a traffic ticket based on the procedures that used to impeach President Trump. And we’re also impeaching a man who’s out of office. When you combine a snap impeachment with an impeachment of a president who’s out of office, you’re going to destroy the presidency itself. I know you hate Trump, but please pull back before we set in motion the destruction of the presidency by never ending impeachments
HANNITY: The presiding judges, Newt new pointed out, is a guy that already declared that he’s guilty. I mean, okay, I can think of a lot of countries this reminds me of, not one of them resembles the United States of America. That’s number one. Now we’ve learned oh, if you didn’t have a snap impeachment, now, we know a lot of this was pre-planned, plotted, schemed. Well, okay, that that they didn’t know in the week that they did their quick snap impeachment. And I do think if this is the standard, we must apply it to everybody else. Is that going to be part of the defense? I hope so.
GRAHAM: Yeah, I think you will see statements by politicians that are more insightful than what President Trump said. But when the founders created impeachment for the president, it was different than for judges and anybody else. It requires the Chief Justice of the United States to preside over presidential impeachments. Why? Because you don’t want a juror presiding over the impeachment of presidential officeholder. So the idea that the President is treated differently under the Constitution makes perfect sense. They never envisioned going after President once he’s out of office, because the purpose of impeachment is to remove the person, not bar them from running in the future. So the whole point of impeachment is lost when the person is long no longer in office, they didn’t go after Nixon when he resigned for a reason. So to my colleagues here, you’re about to set in motion a historical precedent that will put at risk every future president, you could be impeached in the future based on hatred. 50 hours, no witness, no hearing no lawyer, you could be impeached after you leave office. George Washington under this theory could be impeached for owning slaves. We’re doing a lot of damage to the country because people hate Trump. Knock it off.
HANNITY: Can we impeach senators? Can we impeach the sitting Vice President? The sitting president over insurrection charges based on their own words?
GRAHAM: There is no limit to what they’re doing. They’re setting in motion something that is basically political retribution, that’s not based on facts. They actually impeach the president for the gathered effects. We’re finding things now that would be crucial to his defense. He never had a chance to make a defense in the House.