Lindsey Graham once denounced Trump’s intent to pardon Jan. 6 rioters, but lately, he’s been doing everything possible to defend the former president. Following Trump’s first indictment, he begged people to send Trump money not once but twice. Now, he’s here to bend over backwards while discussing the second indictment, a much more severe set of charges (about the boxes of classified documents that Trump hoarded/stored in a Mar-a-Lago bathroom) than the Stormy Daniels scandal ever yielded.
On Sunday, Graham appeared on ABC’s This Week, where he didn’t last too many seconds before snapping at George Stephanopoulos. The conservative senator had begun rambling about Hillary Clinton’s emails, and when the host attempted to get him on track, he was met with this: “No, let me finish!”
Holy shit. Lindsey Graham is going through some things. pic.twitter.com/5TI1y1kZTi
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 11, 2023
Graham continued to get snippy on live TV after Stephanopoulos pointed out that he never answered his question of whether Graham believes that Trump truly did nothing wrong. In response, Graham groused, “I’m trying to answer the question from a Republican point of view. That may not be acceptable on this show.”
From there, that turned back into Graham arguing that Hillary was held to different standards than Trump, and yes, that’s true. However, Clinton wasn’t U.S. president when (as then FBI chief James Comey) she “careless”-ly stored classified information from emails on her own private server. That investigation also found no “clear evidence that Secretary Clinton or her colleagues intended to violate laws governing the handling of classified information.”
As well, Clinton wasn’t president during these offenses. She was Secretary of State and subject to a different set of guidelines than the Presidential Records Act. Still, Graham continued while arguing that the indictment was unfair and meant to “delegitimize” Trump. Graham is further convinced that any espionage-related charges are completely unfair.
STEPHANOPOULOS: I’ve heard your attack on Biden, your attack on Hillary. What I have not heard from you is a defense of Trump’s behavior.
LINDSEY GRAHAM: I’m not justifying his behavior.
S: But you’re endorsing him for POTUS!
GRAHAM: Yeah. They’re trying to delegitimize him. pic.twitter.com/utawgY1DPe
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 11, 2023
In response to Stephanopoulos’ inquiries about “audio tape of Donald Trump saying he knows this is secret information he knows he’s sharing with other people,” Graham responded, “I’m not saying it’s okay.”
So far, this scandal has already been pooh-poohed by MAGA enthusiast Lauren Boebert, but it also caused Fox and Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade’s spirit to deflate in front of the Fox News audience. In other words, expect this to get messier.
(Via ABC News)