Lindsey Graham's Post-Impeachment Victory Lap
It's your Sunday show rundown!
This week marked Lindsey Graham's first Sunday show appearance since the Senatefailedfinished theirno witnessesimpartial Impeachment Trial of Donnie Trumps. Graham seemed more subdued (or sober) than before the impeachment.
Of course, before Lindsey could even utter a word, Trump had to try to direct him like an overeager stage mom.
Margaret Brennan immediately asked Graham about this and he had to try to spin it to sound less ... power abusey:
BRENNAN: The President's up. He's watching, apparently, because he sent out a tweet this morning about you appearing on this program. He said, "DeFace the nation will tell Lindsey Graham they must start up the Judiciary and not stop." I'm not exactly sure quite what that means, but it sounds like he's giving you marching orders.
GRAHAM: I think what he's talking about is oversight of the FISA warrant system that failed. I can promise the President and your viewers that I'm going to call witnesses about--
BRENNAN: Foreign surveillance warrants--the Horowitz report.
So now we have where the Republican Senate is gonna get their revenge! Because as we discussed before, the Horowitz Report is 476 pages that destroy every conspiracy theory in Trump's (and Republicans') stupid leaking brain. But facts have never stopped Republicans from creating a conspiracy where there isn't any (Benghazi), so Graham is gonna do just that but with a new interesting strategy.
GRAHAM: Yeah. The Horowitz report. You know, McCabe, Comey, Rosenstein, Yates. How did you miss it so badly? How could you issue four warrants against an American citizen based on information that was unreliable? But here's what I want to tell the president. I'm not going to be the Republican Christopher Steele. So, Rudy Giuliani last night said he's got the goods on Hunter Biden. I called the attorney general this morning and Richard Burr, the chairman of the Intel Committee, and they told me take very cautiously anything coming out of the Ukraine against anybody. So what I will do is I will get to the bottom of how the FISA warrant system failed and make sure we reform it, doesn't happen again. I think questions about the conflict of interest regarding Hunter Biden in the Ukraine need to be asked. The State Department had warnings and they ignored the conflict of interest. The whistleblower episode needs to be investigated by Richard Burr. But if Rudy Giuliani has any information coming out of the Ukraine, he needs to turn over the Department of Justice because it could be Russian propaganda.
So it seems Lindsey's new strategy: He's gonna ignore Rudy's crazy ass conspiracies (good!) which are just going to go straight to Bill Barr instead.
BRENNAN: Senator, we were talking about the President's tweet this morning, the requests that have been made of you in terms of continuing investigations. This morning on Fox, Rudy Giuliani is continuing to say, quote, you are telling him, "Not my job. Not my job, man" when it comes to information he says he's handing over. You were just saying that any information coming out of Ukraine needs to be dealt with carefully and skeptically because it's likely the product of some kind of--
GRAHAM: It-- it--
BRENNAN: --Russian intelligence operation.
GRAHAM: Have we learned anything from Christopher Steele dossier? It was all a bunch of garbage fed to Christopher Steele to go after Trump.
BRENNAN: And that's what you think Rudy Giuliani--
GRAHAM: And I'm telling Schumer--
BRENNAN: --is delivering garbage?
GRAHAM: I don't know. I'm telling Schumer, don't vouch for Parnas.
BRENNAN: Okay.
GRAHAM: Don't put him in the gallery. I'm telling Rudy, you think you got the goods? Don't give it to me, because what do we know? We know that the Russian disinformation campaign was used against President Trump. They hacked into the DNC system. Not the Ukrainians-
BRENNAN: Mm-Hm.
GRAHAM: --and they're on the ground all over the world trying to affect democracy all over the world.
BRENNAN : Who's paying Rudy Giuliani?
GRAHAM: I don't know. Here's my message to Rudy: If you've got something coming from the Ukraine, turn it over to the intelligence people, the Department of Justice, to any Democrat.
BRENNAN: Got it.
GRAHAM: You think Parnas has got something on me? Well, then go to the Department of Justice and the Intel Committee. Do not pass this stuff on.
Speaking of Rudy, here is a small highlight from that appearance:
Rudy Giuliani claims he can’t walk the streets of New York without people asking him to run for mayor again https: //t.co/wyZqfI77iB
— Acyn (@Acyn) 1581273480.0
Really, Rudy? Let's check the tape:
Wow! In 19 yrs Rudolph Giuliani has gone from the greetings he got walking the street in NY City during 9/11 to thi… https: //t.co/dKi2Hanmhu
— Mr. Reynolds (@Mr. Reynolds) 1580284321.0
Anyways, back to Lindsey Graham. Graham was also asked about Trump's revenge firings of Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman and his twin brother (because I assume Trump was worried Vindman would " Parent Trap " his way back into the White House):
GRAHAM: I think his reassignment was justified. I don't think he could be effective at the NSC. As much as I support our military people telling the truth when asked, it's important they do, what have I learned in the last two years? CIA agents, Department of State, Department of Justice lawyers, FBI agents have a political agenda and they acted on it. And we found that out through the FISA investigation. As to Colonel Vindman, he was not allowed to be asked questions about his connection to the alleged whistleblower, to people working on Schiff's--
BRENNAN: He was asked, and he denied having any--
GRAHAM: No, he was not.
BRENNAN: Well--
GRAHAM: They did not allow him--
BRENNAN: --he was asked during the testimony.
GRAHAM: They did not allow the Republicans go down that road. Two things--
BRENNAN: His brother was also marched out of the White House--
GRAHAM: All I can say is--
BRENNAN: His brother also serves in military--
GRAHAM: Right.
BRENNAN: --and had no connection--
GRAHAM: He has no-- he has no right--
BRENNAN: --to this impeachment.
When asked about the firing of Ambassador Gordon Sondland, Graham took a familiar tone but then added insult to injury about Vindman.
GRAHAM: He is a political appointee. He serves at the pleasure of the President. […] As to Colonel Vindman, thank you for your service. But I'm going to- hopefully, somebody will ask questions of you about the role you play with the whistleblower, if any. And if there's nothing there, fine.
Never have the words "thank you for your service" seemed more hollow. Here is the full interview.
A piece of advice going forward: Always listen to Black Women.
"He's a piece of shit." — @AmbassadorRice on Lindsey Graham Hear the rest of her interview on tomorrow's… https: //t.co/IarYqwO6YP
— Pod Save America (@Pod Save America) 1571777378.0
Have a week!
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The Sunday shows would be considerably better if they would stop inviting people who have demonstrably lied to their faces in the past. Or, barring that (because then no Trump advocate could ever appear, and how could these shows claim "balance" if they don't invite some WH whackjob?), their appearance could be predicated on correcting their earlier "errors" before they get to start in on making any new claims.
"He's a piece of shit."I can't beat that one.