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Lindsey Graham: Trump Talked To Ukraine’s Last President About Corruption Concerns

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WASHINGTON, DC - OCTOBER 24: Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-SC), speaks after introducing a resolution condemning House Impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump, at the U.S. Capitol on October 24, 2019 in Washington, DC.
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Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) told Fox News on Sunday that President Donald Trump has been concerned about corruption in Ukraine for a long time and even spoke to Ukraine’s last president about his concerns.

“So, on substance, [Democrats] told us that the president was unconcerned about burden-sharing, that he wasn’t concerned about corruption, that the only reason he wanted the Ukrainians to look at the Bidens and look into 2016 election interference was for personal gain,” Graham told Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo. “They read the transcript for 21 hours selectively. In the transcript that the House managers never read to the Senate was an exchange between President Trump and the Ukrainian president, Zelensky, where President Trump was complaining about the Europeans not doing enough, and the president of the Ukraine agreed.”

“So, the transcript was devastating to their case. Then the witnesses that they called in their case – they took snippets of hour-long testimony. And one thing for a young lawyer, if you want to use a piece of evidence from a deposition or a tape, make sure that other parts of the tape do not destroy the parts that you used,” Graham continued. “They were able to prove that the witnesses that were called on behalf of the government, when you look at other things they said, completely destroyed their case, that the president had been concerned about corruption in the Ukraine.”

“He raised it with the past president of the Ukraine, raised it with this president,” Graham continued. “And when it comes to the meeting, the managers said that the president was telling the Ukrainian president, you will never meet with me in the White House or any place else unless you give into my demands. In the transcript, the president of the Ukraine suggested that the – President Trump meet him in Poland September the 1st. The president agreed to that meeting. And the only reason he didn’t go was because of hurricanes, and he sent the vice president in his place.”

WATCH:

TRANSCRIPT:

MARIA BARTIROMO, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: And we begin with the impeachment trial resuming tomorrow morning.

After three long days of opening statements from Democratic House managers presenting their case to impeach President Trump, senators finally heard from President Trump’s defense team yesterday.

What do they make of the trial so far? Where does it go tomorrow? We now turn to one of the jurors. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham joins me in this exclusive interview.

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): Thank you.

BARTIROMO: Senator, it’s good to see you this morning. Thank you so much for being here.

GRAHAM: It’s good to have a day off. Thank you.

BARTIROMO: OK. I bet. What have you heard from the House prosecutors and from the president’s defense team? Tell us how it played out, from your standpoint.

GRAHAM: Well, I said early on that I thought the first day, the House managers were articulate. They were prepared. They created a compelling narrative, a tapestry regarding process and substance.

And I asked then publicly, will it withstand scrutiny? When it came to removing the president, their arguments became very political, very shrill.

And while Adam Schiff did a good job of presenting the facts, and at times the law, when it came to removing the president, he has got to go right now, it was more of an audition for a future Senate run than it was compelling.

But what happened yesterday, in two hours, the Senate — the president’s defense team destroyed the narrative created in 21 hours regarding process and substance.

BARTIROMO: Let’s talk about process and substance. Why the process? Tell me that.

GRAHAM: Well, so, the House managers told us on the floor of the United States Senate that President Trump got a better deal from the House than Nixon or Clinton.

And here’s what the response was. Not so. They impeached president in 78 days, President Trump. Imagine 78 days to remove the president of the United States from office, nullify the 2016 election, take him off the ballot in 2020.

Do you think 78 days is proper consideration of something this grave? Seventy-one of the 78 days, the president was denied the ability to call witnesses on his behalf, cross-examine witnesses, present evidence.

So the Nixon impeachment lasted for years. He went to the Supreme Court. The Clinton investigation lasted for four-and-a-half years. So the defense was able to tell the Senate that all the due process given Nixon and Clinton didn’t exist with Trump.

And then they — the most stunning of all arguments, they impeached the president of the United States in 78 days. Why? Because they wanted to get it over by Christmas. Why didn’t they pursue witness in the House? That would require court action. That would delay their goal of impeaching him before the election. I think that is devastating to the House managers.

BARTIROMO: OK. That process was also scrutinized and criticized during the House hearings, let’s not forget…

GRAHAM: Right.

BARTIROMO: … because the president didn’t get a chance to have due process and make his own case at that time. Let’s talk substance. What was your issue?

GRAHAM: OK.

Well, back to process, one last thing, if you contested a parking ticket it would probably take more than 78 days.

So, on substance, they told us that the president was unconcerned about burden-sharing, that he wasn’t concerned about corruption, that the only reason he wanted the Ukrainians to look at the Bidens and look into 2016 election interference was for personal gain.

They read the transcript for 21 hours selectively. In the transcript that the House managers never read to the Senate was an exchange between President Trump and the Ukrainian president, Zelensky, where President Trump was complaining about the Europeans not doing enough, and the president of the Ukraine agreed.

The president in the transcript from the Ukraine said to the president, Trump, you’re doing more than the Europeans. It shouldn’t be that way.

I’m paraphrasing.

So the transcript was devastating to their case. Then the witnesses that they called in their case — they took snippets of hour-long testimony. And one thing for a young lawyer, if you want to use a piece of evidence from a deposition or a tape, make sure that other parts of the tape do not destroy the parts that you used.

BARTIROMO: Yes.

GRAHAM: They were able to prove that the witnesses that were called on behalf of the government, when you look at other things they said, completely destroyed their case, that the president had been concerned about corruption in the Ukraine.

He raised it with the past president of the Ukraine, raised it with this president.

And when it comes to the meeting, the managers said that the president was telling the Ukrainian president, you will never meet with me in the White House or any place else unless you give into my demands.

In the transcript, the president of the Ukraine suggested that the — President Trump meet him in Poland September the 1st. The president agreed to that meeting. And the only reason he didn’t go was because of hurricanes, and he sent the vice president in his place.

BARTIROMO: Yes.

GRAHAM: Within two hours, they devastated the process and substance argument.

BARTIROMO: And I know that there is still evidence that the president’s team and the American people have yet to see. There were 18 witnesses in the House hearings. We have only seen 17 transcripts. We are going to talk about that coming up with Congressman John Ratcliffe and Doug Collins and Mark Meadows…

GRAHAM: Right.

BARTIROMO: … because I want to get their take why we actually haven’t even seen all of the evidence.

OK, so, we have a new FOX News poll that I want to bring your attention to. And what we have seen from this poll, 48 percent of the American people who have been spoken with say there is enough info at this point to make a judgment.

After we hear the rest of the president’s legal team tomorrow and perhaps part of Tuesday, you’re going to — you will have the opportunity, you and your colleagues in the Senate, to ask questions. And, then, ultimately, the question becomes, will there be a vote on witnesses? Do you have enough information, or do you want more information, based on what you know today?

GRAHAM: I have more than enough to make my decision.

But here — here’s what I have never seen before. I’m not Perry Mason, but I have done my fair share of trials in the military and civilian world. Never in my life have I started the trial asking the following of the judge or the jury: Do you mind calling witnesses now that I chose not to call before? Do you mind seeking evidence that I chose not to seek?

Because I want you to do it, because if I had called Bolton and Mulvaney in the House, the president would have gone to court to exercise executive privilege. And I didn’t want him to do that, because I couldn’t impeach him before Christmas if we had to deal with this thing called the court.

So, I am stunned to hear from the House managers that they want the Senate to call witnesses now they could have called before.

And they’re putting us in the box of destroying executive privilege or delaying the trial.

BARTIROMO: Yes.

GRAHAM: The reason they didn’t pursue Bolton or Mulvaney or anybody else is because any president would say, this is the core of my national security team. I’m going to go to court, like Nixon and like Clinton did.

They decided not to give the president a chance to go to court. And they’re warning us now to call these witnesses. What do we do? Delay the trial, so the president can go to court? Or do we, as the Senate, destroy the president’s ability to go to court? A bad spot to be in, in the Senate.

BARTIROMO: Yes, real quick. I have two questions for you, real quick. Number one is on Hunter Biden.

GRAHAM: Right.

BARTIROMO: If you do not call Hunter Biden as a witness this time around…

BARTIROMO: … if you don’t get to witnesses, what are going to you do? You have talked about an independent counsel before.

GRAHAM: Yes. Right. Well, so what — why Senator Biden, if he is not relevant now, then you’re just blind by partisanship. They have said there is not one scintilla of evidence that the Bidens did anything wrong in the Ukraine. They said it has been debunked. By who?

Nobody has looked at this. The president has had his life surveyed from top to bottom by Mueller. Not one person has looked into what Joe Biden and Hunter Biden did in the Ukraine.

And if you can find one scintilla of evidence, not a herd of scintillas, just one, their whole [case] collapses. So, I think you’re going to see the defense present evidence that there are real legitimate concerns.

BARTIROMO: Yes.

GRAHAM: And when this trial is over — I don’t want to call Hunter Biden now — we will do oversight of the Bidens to give the vice president the scrutiny that the president has had regarding the Ukraine that has yet to be had.

BARTIROMO: All right, we will watch that. Final question here. Do you believe the president will get acquitted? Could that happen this week?

GRAHAM: Well, if we seek witnesses, then we are going to throw the country into chaos. We either stop the trial to go to court to allow the president to litigate executive privilege, or we destroy it ourselves.

Here is what I think. I think he is going to get acquitted. Mueller came after him for two years. There was no there there. He was stronger after Mueller. He is going to get acquitted because this has been a railroad job by the House.

He is going to be stronger after impeachment than he was after Mueller. He is now the prohibitive favorite, in my view, to get reelected. And this is the boomerang party. Every time they go after Trump, it hurts them. They throw rocks at Trump, they get hit.

Mueller investigates Trump. What happens? The FBI and the Department of Justice falls apart. They try to accuse Trump of corruption in the Ukraine, and we find out that conflicts of interests by Joe Biden really stink.

BARTIROMO: Yes. Well, we got news this week from the Department of Justice on unlawful surveillance of Carter Page. We are going to talk about that, because this is all connected, as we all know. Senator, it’s very good to see you this morning. Thank you, sir.

GRAHAM: Thank you.

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