Tag: Lindsey Graham

Frustration builds in key committee ahead of Graham subpoena vote

The Hill logoSenate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham’s (R-S.C.) plans to force a vote next week on a wide-ranging subpoena as part of his probe into the Russia investigation is reviving long-simmering frustrations on the Judiciary Committee. 

Graham has set a vote for June 4 on a subpoena that would let him compel documents and interviews with dozens of officials as he plans to ramp up his months-long probe into “Crossfire Hurricane,” the name for the FBI’s investigation into Russian election interference and the Trump campaign.

Included in the subpoena, which is likely to be approved along party lines, are some of President Trump’s biggest political targets. Democrats view it as Graham’s latest breach of the panel’s bipartisan history that underscores his shift from Trump critic to ally. Continue reading.

 

Lindsey Graham’s own words get thrown back in his face in devastating attack ad

AlterNet logoSen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) is getting hit with a new attack ad that throws the senator’s own words back in his face.

The ad, which was produced by a super PAC called “Lindsey Must Go,” shows all the times that Graham attacked President Donald Trump before abruptly changing to becoming a major supporter of the president.

“I think he’s a kook,” Graham says at the start of the ad. “I think he’s crazy. I think he’s unfit for office.” Continue reading.

Sen. Graham Using Judiciary Committee To Enact Partisan Vengeance

Journalists should treat Sen. Lindsey Graham’s (R-SC) pending Judiciary Committee hearings into the origins of the FBI’s Russia probe as an abuse of power intended as political payback. After all, Graham has explicitly said that would be why he would conduct such an inquiry.

Graham issued a startling threat during an appearance on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show on November 14, 2018. House Democrats had just won a majority in the midterm elections, and their incoming committee chairs were proposing rigorous investigations of the Trump administration. But Republicans held the Senate, putting Graham in line to become chairperson of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Graham warned congressional Democrats that if he became Senate Judiciary chairperson and House Democrats investigated Russian interference in the 2016 election, he would retaliate by probing whether there was “political bias” involved in the FBI’s handling of the Russia probe and its decision not to indict former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in relation to her use of a private email server. Those allegations are at the heart of numerous conspiracy theories that had been championed by Hannity, his Fox colleagues, and President Donald Trump. Continue reading.

Graham to start hearings on Russia probe, Flynn in June

The Hill logoSen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said on Thursday that the Senate Judiciary Committee will start hearings in June on the FBI’s investigation into Russian election interference and President Trump‘s campaign.

Graham said in a statement that the hearings will deal with the Justice Department’s decision to drop its case against former White House national security adviser Michael Flynn, the warrant applications against former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page and if former special counsel Robert Mueller should have been appointed.

“The Judiciary Committee will begin holding multiple, in-depth congressional hearings regarding all things related to Crossfire Hurricane starting in early June,” Graham said. Continue reading.

Graham’s embrace of Trump fuels competitive fight in South Carolina

The Hill logoSen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a vocal ally of President Trump‘s who is frequently in the political and media spotlight, is suddenly facing a competitive reelection race back home.

Graham’s alliance with Trump has helped him avoid a nasty primary fight, while fueling Democratic efforts to unseat him in November.

Scott Huffmon, a political science professor and the executive director for the Center for Public Opinion and Policy Research at Winthrop University, predicted that the match-up against Jaime Harrison, the former chairman of the South Carolina Democratic Party and Graham’s top opponent, could be “potentially a single-digit race.”  Continue reading.

Lindsey Graham won’t stop attacking workers who’ve lost their jobs

Lindsey Graham won’t stop attacking workers who’ve lost their jobs

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) continued to attack laid-off workers in the middle of a health crisis, vowing that he would do everything he could to block an extension of additional unemployment benefits once they expire at the end of July.

“July the 31st is when this expires and I promise you, over our dead bodies, this will get reauthorized,” Graham said in front of  South Carolina’s COVID-19 advisory team on Tuesday.

Graham argued that the benefits are so generous that people will opt to receive them rather than go to work, and called them an “aberration” he promised to fix. Continue reading.

Sen. Graham Wants Senate To Absolve Trump Of Pandemic Failure

Republicans are deflecting criticism from Trump’s failure to respond to the coronavirus and focusing blame on China.

From the April 9 edition of Fox News’ “Hannity”:

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): So the first thing I want to do is get the United States Senate on the record where we — we don’t blame Trump, we blame China — the Chinese government’s responsible for 16,000 American deaths and 17 million Americans being unemployed. It’s the Chinese government and the way they behave that led to this pandemic. This is the third one to come out of China.

I want to make our response to this so overwhelming that China will change its behavior. I want to get the medical supply chain back into the United States, and I want to stop [sic] canceling some debt that we owe to China because they should be paying us, not us paying China. So, I think you’re going to see a bipartisan push back against China to punish them so severely to deter them in the future.

View the post here.

Graham to self-quarantine after Mar-a-Lago trip

The Hill logoSen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) is self-quarantining after a trip to Mar-a-Lago where Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was also present. 

Graham, according to a statement from his office, “has no recollection of direct contact” with Bolsonaro, who is being monitored for the coronavirus, or his spokesman, who has tested positive.

“However, in an abundance of caution and upon the advice of his doctor, Senator Graham has decided to self-quarantine awaiting the results of a coronavirus test,” the statement from Graham’s office said.   Continue reading.

Even Lindsey Graham Warns Trump To Pay Attention To Coronavirus Science

The South Carolina senator said he “encourages” the president to “make sure that the science is behind what he says.”

One of Donald Trump’s fiercest defenders urged the president on Thursday to pay attention to scientific facts instead of spit-balling a coronavirus death rate and insisting that up to “hundreds of thousands” of Americans could catch the virus with little ill effect and still go to work.

“I don’t know what he was talking about,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told reporters after Trump explained to Sean Hannity on Fox News that he had a “hunch” the death rate for COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, is less than 1%. The World Health Organization has reported that the death rate is 3.4%.

“I would encourage the president, if he’s going to report things, to make sure that the science is behind what he says,” Graham added, noting: “I listen to the scientists when it comes to the numbers.”

Harris asks Graham to bring in Barr over Stone sentencing

She wants an explanation of the handling of the Roger Stone case.

Sen. Kamala Harris demanded Tuesday that Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) bring in Attorney General William Barr to testify about the Justice Department’s handling of the sentencing of former Trump campaign adviser Roger Stone.

The California Democrat’s request comes after the Justice Department backed off a previous recommendation for a seven-to-nine-year sentence for Stone for impeding federal investigations into connections between the 2016 Trump campaign and Russia. The DOJ’s revised sentencing recommendation occurred after President Donald Trump tweeted that the initial recommendation was “horrible and very unfair,” though a Justice Department official speaking on condition of anonymity insisted the decision to retreat was made before Trump took aim at the initial proposal.

The revised recommendation appears to have prompted the withdrawal of the four prosecutors handling Stone’s case. Continue reading.