Graham compares 'Salem witch trials, impeachment 'set up'

FPI / September 30, 2019

The Salem witch trials had “more due process” than the whistleblower complaint against President Donald Trump, which is nothing more than “a political setup,” Sen. Lindsey Graham said on CBS’s Face the Nation on Sept. 29.

CBS personality and show host Margaret Brennan asked the South Carolina Republican if he has any problems with the phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

“I have zero problems with this phone call,” Graham responds.

Brennan than says: “Even with that sequencing?”

Graham responds: “I just told you I have zero problems with this phone call. There is no quid pro quo here but I do have a problem with Nancy Pelosi. If you believe that Donald Trump did something to hurt this country you owe it to vote, not talk about impeaching the president. The only way to open up an impeachment inquiry is to vote. We need a John Hancock moment from House Democrats. Quit hiding behind Nancy Pelosi. If you think the president did something wrong in this phone call, then vote to open up an article of impeachment inquiry and a lot of House Democrats won’t because they’re afraid.”

Brennan than asks if Graham thought it was “ethical” for Trump to bring up Joe Biden in the phone call with Zelensky.

Graham responds: "Yes, absolutely. I think somebody ought to look at whether or not Joe Biden had the prosecutor fired in an improper way. I love Joe Biden. I don’t want to look at it. I want an inspector general somebody like Mueller. Did Biden know that his son was receiving 50,000 dollars a month from a gas company being investigated by the prosecutor–"

After several Brennan interruptions, Graham continues: "–on a board being investigated for corruption and the guy doing the investigation is asked to be fired by Biden. I don’t know what happened. It smells to high heaven. I never said the Mueller witch hunt, the Mueller investigation was a witch hunt. I introduced legislation to protect Mueller. This seems to me like a political setup. It’s all hearsay. You can’t get a parking ticket conviction based on hearsay. The whistleblower didn’t hear the phone call."

Graham added: “Donald Trump is still an American. Every American deserves to confront their accuser. So, this is a sham as far as I’m concerned. I want to know who told the whistleblower about the phone call. I want to know why they changed the rules about whistleblowers not, the hearsay rule was changed just a short period of time before the complaint was filed. The complaint sounds like a legal document. Who helped this guy write it or this girl write it? We’re not going to try the president of the United States based on hearsay. Every American has a right to confront their accuser.”

After Graham calls out Brennan on her insistence that the call transcript and the whistleblower complaint “are matched,” noting they are not, Graham goes on to say: “You know you’ve got an opinion and I got an opinion. You’ve got me on the show to tell me what I think. I think Mueller did a good job for the country and there was nothing there. I think this whole thing is a sham. I can’t believe we’re talking about impeaching the president based on an accusation based on hearsay. Who is this whistleblower? What bias do they have? Why did they pick this whistleblower to tell a hearsay story? The transcript does not match the complaint.”

Graham continued: “What’s going on here? Why did they change the rules about a whistleblower you can use hearsay when you could not just weeks before the complaint? So, I think this thing stinks. If you’re Donald Trump you don’t get to confront your accuser like every other American. Republicans believe this president is being persecuted. They believe that everybody’s out to get him and I believe as to this complaint it smells.”

Graham went on to say of the whistleblower complaint: “This is the third time a phone call has been compromised.”

Brennan says: “But the whistleblower here says that multiple White House officials conveyed this to him.”

Graham asks: “Who are they? What bias do they have?”

Brennan then tries to shift the discussion, but Graham was not having it.

“No, wait a minute. Let’s stop right there. The whistleblower says 'I have no direct knowledge, multiple White House officials told me this. They tell me about a phone call.' There’s a disconnect. Who are these people, and what are they up to? You know, this is- Mueller wasn’t a witch hunt, but this is- Salem witch trials have more due process than this.”

Free Press International