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Sen. Lindsey Graham denounced the entire impeachment process during a floor speech near the conclusion of the Senate trial, saying the process has been a “disgusting… sham” that will cause long-term damage to the office of the presidency.
Graham said: “So acquittal will happen in about two hours, exoneration comes when President Trump gets reelected because the people of the United States are fed up with this crap.”
“The reason the president was never allowed to go to court and challenge the subpoenas issued is the House managers understood that would take time. President Nixon and President Clinton were allowed to go to Article III court and contest the House’s action. That was denied this president because it would get in the way of impeaching him before the election,” Graham said. “If you think that Adam Schiff is trying to get to the truth, I have a bridge I want to sell you. They hate President Trump’s guts, they rammed it through the House in a way that you couldn’t get a parking ticket and they had a goal of impeaching him before the election.”
“You send this crap over here and you’re okay with it, my Democratic colleagues. You’re okay with the idea that the president was denied his day in court and you were going to rule on executive privilege as a political body. You were willing to deal out the Article III courts because you hate Trump that much. You have weakened the institution of the presidency. Be careful what you wish for because it will come back your way.”
“Ladies and gentlemen, you will come to regret this process,” he told the Senate. “And to those who have these pens, I hope you will understand history will judge those pens as a souvenir of shame.”
The trial proceedings Feb 3, Feb 4 and Feb 5 floor time was reserved for senators who wanted to deliver speeches on the Senate floor about the impeachment process and how they plan to vote.
The original clips contained more than 8 minutes of video, this compressed version is only 6 minutes after removal of silences and pauses.
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Transcript
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM: I supported the Mueller investigation. I had Democratic colleagues come to me and say, “We’re afraid he’s going to fire Mueller. Will you stand with us to make sure Mueller can complete his investigation?” And I did. Two years, $32 million, FBI agents, subpoenas, you name it, the verdict is in. What did we find? Nothing.
I thought that would be it. But it’s never enough when it comes to Trump. Sorry. It’s never enough when it comes to President Trump. This sham process is the low point in the Senate for me. If you think you’ve done the country a good service by legitimatizing this impeachment process, what you have done is unleashed the partisan forces of hell. This is sour grapes.
They impeached the president of the United States in 78 days. You could not get a parking ticket if you contested it in 78 days. They gave out souvenir pens when it was over. If you can’t see through that, your hatred of Donald Trump has blinded you to the obvious. This is not about protecting the country. This is about destroying the president.
There are no rules when it comes to Donald Trump. Everybody in America can confront the witnesses against him against — them except Donald Trump. Everybody in America can call witnesses on their behalf except President Trump. Everybody in America can introduce evidence except for President Trump. He’s not above the law, but you put him below the law, and the process of impeaching this president, you’ve made it almost impossible for future presidents to do their job.
In 78 days, you took due process as we’ve come to know it in America and threw it in the garbage can. This is the first impeachment in the history of the country driven by politicians. The Nixon impeachment had outside counsel, watergate prosecutors. And the Clinton impeachment had Ken Starr. The Mueller investigation went on for two years. I trusted Bob Mueller. And when he rendered his verdict, it broke your heart and you can’t let it go. The only way this is going to end permanently is for the president to get reelected, and he will.
So as to abuse of Congress, is it a wholesale assault on the presidency, is it abandoning every sense of fairness that every American has come to expect in their own lives. It’s driven by blind partisanship and hatred of the man himself, and they wanted to do it in 78 days. Why? Because they wanted to impeach him before the election. I am not making this up. They said that.
The reason the president was never allowed to go to court and challenge the subpoenas issued is the House managers understood that would take time. President Nixon and President Clinton were allowed to go to Article III court and contest the House’s action. That was denied this president because it would get in the way of impeaching him before the election.
You send this crap over here and you’re okay with it, my Democratic colleagues. You’re okay with the idea that the president was denied his day in court and you were going to rule on executive privilege as a political body. You were willing to deal out the Article III courts because you hate Trump that much. You have weakened the institution of the presidency. Be careful what you wish for because it will come back your way.
Abuse of Congress should be entitled “abuse of power by the Congress.” If you think that Adam Schiff is trying to get to the truth, I have a bridge I want to sell you. They hate President Trump’s guts, they rammed it through the House in a way that you couldn’t get a parking ticket and they had a goal of impeaching him before the election. The Senate will achieve its goal of acquitting him in February and the American people are going to get to decide in November who they want to be their president.
So acquittal will happen in about two hours, exoneration comes when President Trump gets reelected because the people of the United States are fed up with this crap.
But the damage you have done will be long-lasting. Abuse of power, you’re impeaching the president of the United States for suspending foreign aid for a short period of time that they eventually received ahead of schedule to leverage an investigation that never happened. You’re going to remove the president of the United States for suspending foreign aid to leverage an investigation of a political opponent that never occurred. The Ukrainians didn’t know the suspension until September. They didn’t feel any pressure.
If you’re okay with Joe Biden and Hunter Biden doing what they do, it says more about you than it does anything else. The point of the abuse of power article is that you made it almost impossible now for any president to pick up the phone if all of us can assume the worst and impeach somebody based on a subjective standard. He was talking about the corruption in Ukraine with the past president. And the Bidens’ conduct in the Ukraine undercut our ability to effectively deal with corruption by allowing his son to receive $3 million through the most corrupt gas company in the Ukraine.
Can you imagine how the Ukrainian parliament must have felt to be lectured by Joe Biden by ending sweetheart deals?
What you have done is impeached the president of the United States and willing to remove him because he suspended foreign aid for 40 days to leverage an investigation that never occurred, and to my good friend, Dick Durbin, Donald Trump has done more to help the Ukrainian people than Barack Obama did in his entire eight years. If you’re looking for somebody to help the Ukrainian people fight the Russians, how about giving them some weapons. This is a sham. This is a farce. This is disgusting. This is an injustice to President Trump as a person. It’s a threat to the office. It will end soon. It’s going to be an overwhelming rejection of both articles. We’re going to pick up the pieces and try to go forward, but I can say this without any hesitation. I worry about the future of the presidency after what’s happened here. Ladies and gentlemen, will you come to regret this whole process. And to those who have these pens, I hope you will understand history will judge those pens as a souvenir of shame.
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Sen. Lindsey Graham's speech in Senate Trump impeachment trial(Feb 5, 2020) https://t.co/gVoNVkVhKm
— HYGO News (@HygoNews) February 6, 2020