Top Republicans in Washington, D.C., and right-wing media personalities have started to sour on Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-SC) for not using his power as chairman to call for public hearings to get to the bottom of how the Russia investigation started and for not calling on Kurt Volker, former U.S. Special Representative for Ukraine, to testify in front of the committee while Democrats in the House push for impeachment.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) called out Graham during an interview Monday evening on Fox News over Graham’s inaction.
“Senator Graham has the power, he’s the chairman of a powerful committee, the Judiciary Committee, and yes, I’ve encouraged him publicly and privately to do this,” Paul said. “He needs to go ahead and exercise his power, we’ve been waiting a long time on this.”
“A lot of us want to see it get started, we want to see subpoenas, and we don’t want to see everything done in secret on the House side and then they parse out what they want to parse out,” Paul added. “Most of those people that are testifying over there could easily be asked to testify over here.”
Fox News’ Tucker Carlson also highlighted multiple promises that Graham has made on cable news but has not followed through on.
Tucker Carlson and Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) call out @LindseyGrahamSC for not using his power as chairman of Judiciary Committee to call for public hearings on the Russia probe and to get those testifying to the Democrat-controlled House to testify in publicpic.twitter.com/D5U49wFDtQ
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) October 22, 2019
Paul was not the only top Republican to call out Graham on Monday over his inaction.
“Since Republicans don’t control the House, Senator Graham is in a unique position to call hearings, collect documents, and bring in witnesses on a range of important issues—FISA abuse, impeachment-related issues like Ukrainian election meddling, etc,” a top House GOP source told The Daily Wire. “He talks a lot on TV about taking action, but he never actually does anything, and Republicans realize that. It’s a shame because he could really make a difference if he actually did some work.”
Former White House officials and sources close to Graham also told The Daily Wire that they were becoming increasingly angered by Graham’s inaction.
“I’m deeply disappointed in Lindsey,” a former senior White House official told The Daily Wire. “I always thought he was someone you could count on, he sure proved me wrong.”
“I never knew him to be the type to make empty promises, especially when the stakes are so high,” a source close to Graham told The Daily Wire. “I am sick of walking around town making excuses for him.”
Trump called out Republicans on Monday while speaking to reporters, saying: “Republicans have to get tougher and fight.”
“We have some that are great fighters, but they have to get tougher and fight because the Democrats are trying to hurt the Republican Party for the election, which is coming up, where we’re doing very well,” Trump continued. “I think the Democrats fight dirty. I think the Democrats are lousy politicians with lousy policy.”
“They want open borders. They don’t care about crime. They want sanctuary cities. They don’t care about drugs,” Trump added. They don’t care about almost anything. They don’t care about USMCA.”
Trump then took a shot at weak Republicans, like Senator Mitt Romney (UT), for not sticking with the party when the going gets tough.
“[Democrats have] two things they have: They’re vicious and they stick together,” Trump said. “They don’t have Mitt Romney in their midst. They don’t have people like that. They stick together. You never see them break off. You never see somebody go out and [do their own thing].”
Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., also called out Graham on Twitter, writing: “Paging @LindseyGrahamSC. Your country needs you.”
Paging @LindseyGrahamSC. Your country needs you. https://t.co/061L1roAjg
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) October 21, 2019