Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina – one in every of President Trump’s closest allies within the Senate – is warning that impeaching Trump over his feedback earlier than final week’s attack on the Capitol is a “rushed process” that “will become a threat to future presidents.”
And in what seemed to be a warning to the rising variety of congressional Republicans backing the impeachment push by Democrats – in addition to to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who sources say is now supportive of the transfer to question the president – Graham wrote in an announcement on Wednesday that his GOP colleagues are “doing great damage … to the party.”
HOUSE IMPEACHMENT DEBATE UNDERWAY AS GOP SPLINTERS ON REBUKING TRUMP OVER CAPITOL INSURRECTION
Graham launched his assertion because the House of Representatives started debate on the article of impeachment – which accuses Trump of “incitement of insurrection.”
In this picture from video, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., speaks because the Senate reconvenes to debate the objection to substantiate the Electoral College Vote from Arizona, after protesters stormed into the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021. (Senate Television by way of AP)
It says that the president “repeatedly issued false statements asserting that the presidential election results were the product of widespread fraud and should not be accepted by the American people or certified by state or federal officials” earlier than holding a rally in D.C. the place he “willfully made statements that, in context, encouraged – and foreseeably resulted in – lawless action at the Capitol.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., in making the case for impeachment, mentioned on Wednesday that Trump “must go. He is a clear and present danger.” Pelosi described the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol by a mob of Trump supporters and different right-wing extremists as “a day of fire.”
IN BREAKING WITH TRUMP, STRATEGIST SAYS PENCE ‘DOES WHAT HE BELIEVES IN’
But Graham, taking purpose on the fast transfer to question Trump with only a week left in his presidency, argued that “the House impeachment process seeks to legitimize a snap impeachment totally void of due process. No hearings. No witnesses. It is a rushed process that, over time, will become a threat to future presidents.”
Graham, who as a congressman in 1999 served as a Republican supervisor within the House impeachment of Democratic President Bill Clinton, emphasised that impeaching Trump for a second time in his presidency “will further divide the country.”
And the senator – who earlier than he turned a detailed buddy and supporter of the president was a really vocal Trump critic as each candidates ran for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination – highlighted that “the president, who will be leaving office in less than a week, has committed to an orderly transfer of power, encouraging calm and rejecting violence.”
Roughly half a dozen House Republicans have publicly mentioned they’ll vote to question Trump. That checklist contains Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the third-ranking House Republican.
CLICK HERE FOR LIVE UPDATES FROM FOX NEWS AS THE HOUSE VOTES TO IMPEACH PRESIDENT TRUMP
Fox News on Tuesday confirmed a New York Times report that McConnell – who labored with the president the previous 4 years to stack the judiciary with staunch conservative judges – is “done with Trump.” Sources instructed Fox News that McConnell has shared with associates that he believes a second impeachment will assist the Republican Party exorcise Trump and Trumpism from its cloth after the president leaves workplace.
The sources mentioned there’s “no love lost there” between Trump and McConnell and that the Senate Republican chief’s fury is a results of each Trump’s actions earlier than and in the course of the storming of the Capitol and blame McConnell assigns to Trump for Republicans dropping their Senate majority after twin electoral losses final week in Georgia’s Senate runoff elections.
Graham, in his assertion, warned, “to my Republican colleagues who legitimize this process, you are doing great damage not only to the country, the future of the presidency, but also to the party.”
And he emphasised that “the millions who have supported President Trump and his agenda should not be demonized because of the despicable actions of a seditious mob. The individuals who participated in the storming of the Capitol should be met with the full force of the law. They should and will be held accountable.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., left, walks with President Donald Trump as they board Air Force One upon arrival at Valley International Airport, Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2021, in Harlingen, Texas, after visiting a piece of the border wall with Mexico in Alamo, Texas. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Last week, in a high-profile break with the president following the storming of the Capitol, Graham opposed Trump’s efforts to reverse the election outcomes. “Trump and I, we’ve had a hell of a journey. I hate it to end this way,” Graham mentioned as he supported certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s victory over Trump.
But apparently mending fences with Trump, Graham joined him on Air Force One because the president flew to Texas on Tuesday.
Fox News’ Mike Emanuel and Brooke Singman contributed to this report
