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Lindsey Graham: ‘Not One Vote’ Among Senate Republicans To Oust Trump

   DailyWire.com
U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) speaks at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to be an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, on Capitol Hill September 27, 2018 in Washington, DC
Michael Reynolds-Pool/Getty Images

Impeachment of the president is a two-step process. First, the House votes to impeach, which, in a criminal court, would be analogous to handing down an indictment. Then the Senate holds what amounts to a trial. If convicted, the president is removed from office and the vice president takes over. If acquitted, he would return to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue as if nothing had ever happened.

To hear the mainstream media tell it, President Trump is on the verge of being impeached and removed from office. But while Democrats control the House — which will almost certainly vote to impeach — Republicans control the Senate, which almost certainly will not vote to convict.

There have been reports in MSM outlets that a dozen or more Republicans could vote to convict. “The Senate is likelier to remove Trump after impeachment than you think,” read a Washington Post headline this month. But even that report said “getting 20 out of 53 Republican senators to agree to boot him from office won’t be easy under any circumstances.”

Therein lies the rub. In the Senate, a chamber-wide vote to convict requires a two-third majority — or 67 of the 100 members. The current makeup of the chamber is 53 Republicans, 45 Democrats, and two independents who almost always vote with the Democrats. That means Democrats need 20 Republicans to cross the aisle.

But, problem. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) says not only do the Democrats not have 20, they don’t have a single vote.

“You have to accept that President Trump is president,” Graham said Tuesday on Fox News’ “Hannity” show.

“That’s the problem. They don’t accept that President Trump won the election, and America hates a sore loser as much as any country on the planet. This is an unfair process being driven by sore losers and there is not one vote in the United States Senate to impeach President Trump based on this phone call because he did nothing wrong,” the South Carolina Republican said.

The senator quickly corrected himself, saying there is not one vote “among Republicans” in the Senate.

Hannity asked Graham if the Senate could call former Vice President Joe Biden, Hunter Biden, or even Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) to testify.

“The president’s denied right to counsel and Republicans can’t call witnesses without Schiff agreeing, so this whole thing is a sham,” Graham said.

House Democrats on Tuesday unveiled legislation to authorize the next phase of the impeachment inquiry against Trump. The eight-page resolution calls for public hearings and requires the House Intelligence Committee, which Schiff heads as chairman, to file a report detailing its findings and recommendations. The report would also come with a final recommendation on impeachment to be left to the House Judiciary Committee.

On the other side, Republicans would be authorized to request subpoenas, but every request would require a full committee vote. Because Democrats control the House, they’ll be able to deny any subpoena they choose.

White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said the resolution simply “confirms that House Democrats’ impeachment has been an illegitimate sham from the start as it lacked any proper authorization by a House vote.”

The resolution “does nothing to change the fundamental fact that House Democrats refuse to provide basic due process rights to the administration,” she said.

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