On Monday, during an appearance on FNC’s “Hannity,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) criticized Donald Trump’s impeachment, which is set to be underway on Tuesday.
Graham lamented having to participate in the proceedings and warned impeachment would have a lasting impact on the country.
“I got to listen to this crap,” Graham said. “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 and then some. To my colleagues tomorrow, there are a hundred of us, what we do today is going to make history of the time America exists. What Democrats have done is basically declared war on the presidency itself. The impeachment in 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 producers they used to impeach President Trump,” he continued. “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 this destruction of the presidency by never-ending impeachments based on lack of due process and political retribution as the motive.”
The South Carolina Republican lawmaker argued by impeaching a former president, the Democrat-controlled Congress was creating a new precedent.
“I think you’ll see statements by politicians that are more inciteful than what President Trump said,” he said. “But when the Founders created impeachment for the president, it was different than for judges and anybody else. It requires that the chief justice of the United States to preside over presidential impeachments. Why? Because you don’t want a juror preceding over the impeachment of a presidential officeholder. So the idea that the president is treated differently under the Constitution makes perfect sense. They never envisioned going after the president once he’s out of office because the purpose for 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 no longer in office,” Graham added. “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 can be impeached after you leave office. George Washington, under this theory, can be impeached for owning slaves. We’re doing a lot of damage to the country because people hate Trump. Knock it off.”
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor
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