Republicans need to get it over with
by digby
Lindsey Graham was on Face the Nation this morning and spouted a lot of gobbledygook about everything. But basically he’s agitating for a quick and dirty vote so they can move on to investigating Biden during the election year:
MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, back when you were in the House, during the Clinton impeachment, you were an impeachment manager. And I want to play a clip from what you said on Face the Nation back then in 1999:
(BEGIN CLIP)
SEN. GRAHAM: All I ask for is a chance to do it meaningful if you have one day and you’re stuck with a judiciary report, I don’t think history will judge the Senate well. If they decide to acquit the president, there needs to be a record well developed where both sides had a chance to prove their case. So I hope we have a trial that is meaningful, that will withstand historical scrutiny, that will follow the precedents of the past. I’ve never known and impeachment trial without a witness and just lasting one day to present the case for the House. That’s frankly not fair.
(END CLIP)
MARGARET BRENNAN: Why have your standards for Senate trial changed?
SEN. GRAHAM: Well, Ken Starr investigated President Clinton for years, spent millions of dollars. He was an outside counsel. Bob Mueller investigated Donald Trump for two years, spent twenty-five million dollars. I supported the Mueller investigation because I think he would be fair. It was not a witch hunt in my view. This is the first impeachment trial being driven by partisan politicians conducted behind closed doors. The testimony was selectively leaked. The president was denied the ability to participate meaningful in the House hearing. And I want to end it. I have nothing but disdain for this. I’m trying to make myself clear. What you’re doing in the House is bad for the presidency. You’re impeaching the president of the United States in a matter of weeks, not months. You had a two-year investigation, that wasn’t enough. I think this whole thing is a crock. You’re shutting the president out. The process in the House, any partisan group could do this in the future. You’re weaponizing impeachment. And I want to end it. I don’t want to legitimize it. I hate what they’re doing.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Rudy Giuliani spoke to our Paula Reid and said when he was in Ukraine just in the past few days, he had to go buy a whole separate suitcase because he came back with so many documents for this report he wants to make. He was at the White House on Friday. Do you plan to look at the information he gathered? Is he credible?
SEN. GRAHAM: Well, I don’t know what he found, but if he wants to come the Judiciary Committee—Rudy, if you want to come and tell us what you found, I’ll be glad to talk to you. When it comes to impeachment, I want to base my decision on the record assembled in the House. We can look at what Rudy’s got and Joe Biden, Hunter Biden, and anything else you want to look at after impeachment. But if Rudy wants to come to the Judiciary Committee and testify about what he found, he’s welcome to do so.
MARGARET BRENNAN: All right. We’ll look for that. You have, though, announced a separate investigation into your friend, Joe Biden. And you said that- that you love him, but you want to pursue this investigation. He was asked about this on CNN–
SEN. GRAHAM: I did. I did, very much so…
MARGARET BRENNAN: He was asked about this on CNN recently and I want to play that bite.
(BEGIN CLIP)
FORMER VICE PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: I am disappointed. And quite frankly, I’m angered by the fact. He knows me. He knows my son. He knows there’s nothing to this. Trump is now essentially holding power over him that even the Ukrainians wouldn’t yield to. And Lindsey is about to go down in a way that I think he’s going to regret his whole life.
(END CLIP)
MARGARET BRENNAN: He says you’re going to regret this your whole life. Is there anything that you’ve done with this Ukraine investigation that- that gives you pause?
SEN. GRAHAM: Oh no, not at all. Joe Biden is a- is a friend. He’s one of the most decent people I’ve ever met in my life. But here’s the deal. This whole process around the Ukraine is—reeks with politics. They’ve done everything but take a wrecking ball to Donald Trump and his family.
We’re not going to live in a world where only Republicans get looked at. As much as I love Joe Biden and I’m sincere when I say that, now that you want to talk about Ukraine, it’s pretty hard for me to go home and tell my constituents to ignore the fact that Hunter Biden received fifty thousand dollars a month from a gas company in the Ukraine, run by the most corrupt person in the Ukraine. And two months after the gas company was investigated, the prosecutor got fired.
I don’t know if there’s anything to this. I hope not. I hope I can look at the transcripts of the phone call between Biden in the Ukraine–Joe Biden after the investigation began and say there’s no there, there. These are legitimate concerns about what happened in the Ukraine. I love Joe Biden, but none of us are above scrutiny. I’d like to knock all this off and get back on governing the country.
He’s not stupid and he knows he’s spreading disinformation. Unfortunately, Margaret Brennan did not contest the silly fact that we know the timeline doesn’t support any of what he’s insinuating.
He is obviously trying to manipulate Trump by promising that if they can get a short trial he’ll use the Judiciary Committee to help Trump smear Joe Biden with Giuliani’s nonsense.
There is a battle within the GOP, however. Some are pushing Trump to demand a full trial with all the trimmings. Here’s Ted Cruz:
In an interview with FOX News radio host Guy Benson, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said President Trump should be able to call witnesses in his defense if he would like to. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said he is not interested in calling witnesses in the “sham” impeachment process.
“My personal view is the House conducted a partisan show trial,” Cruz said Thursday. “They denied due process. They didn’t allow the president to cross-examine witnesses. They didn’t allow Republicans to call witnesses.
I think the Senate needs to do better. We need to respect due process. We need a fair proceeding. That means we need to let both sides present their case.”
“If the president wants to call witnesses, if the president wants to call Hunter Biden or the whistleblower, the Senate should allow the president to call witnesses in his defense,” the Senator said.
And the wingnuts in the House agree:
Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) said that “America needs to hear from the witnesses” and that having a Senate trial without witnesses “would be a big mistake.”
“The Senate has promised for months now that they would have witnesses. … They really need to bring in witnesses. They’re the chance to clean this mess up,” he said.
And Rep. Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) sent a letter to Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) urging him to reconsider support for a speedy trial, arguing that Republicans should “fight fire with fire and tell them enough is enough.” Graham told The Hill that he favored a trial with no witnesses, saying, “I want to end this thing as quickly as possible.”
Trump definitely would like a big Perry Mason trial where he is totally exonerated in the end and they all file out of the capitol cheering and shouting “Hail Trump.” And he undoubtedly believes it can be engineered by McConnell and his ally Chief Justice John Roberts to happen exactly according to his script.
Frankly, he’s probably right.
The problem with Trump is that he doesn’t realize he is the villain in the movie (and not the kind people “love to hate”) to a majority of the American people. If the Senate puts on an obvious show trial, he will be hated even more.
McConnell and Graham know that. (Cruz and Gohmert are also villains so they don’t get it.)
The Republicans need to put an end to this as soon as possible so that they can start phase II. Barr’s got plans to disrupt the race in the early summer. It looks like Graham will be setting the table for him in the Senate this spring .
I guess my question is why the Democrats agree with them?
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— digby
Happy Hollandaise!
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