Graham backs Trump: 'This is a lynching in every sense'
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Tuesday said President Trump is absolutely right to call the House impeachment process a "lynching."
"This is a lynching in every sense. This is un-American," Graham said to reporters.
"I've never seen a situation in my lifetime as a lawyer where somebody is accused of a major misconduct who cannot confront the accuser, call witnesses on their behalf and have the discussion in the light of day so the public can judge," he said.
Graham made his comments after Trump caused a firestorm by tweeting that the House impeachment inquiry is a "lynching." Graham backed up the president, saying, "I think that's pretty well accurate."
"I think lynching is being seen as somebody taking the law in their own hands and out to get somebody for no good reason," he said.
Asked if he could understand why African Americans would be offended by the comparison, Graham stood his ground.
"Yes, African Americans have [been] lynched. Other people have been lynched throughout history. What does lynching mean? That a mob grabs you, they don't give you a chance to defend yourself, they don't tell you what happened to you, they just destroy you. That's exactly what's happening in the United States House of Representatives right now," he said.
"In every sense, this is a mob taking over the rule of law. This is fundamentally un-American and until it changes, I will fight back as hard as I can," he said of House Democrats.
Graham later clarified that he was comparing the House inquiry to a "political lynching."
He also argued that the media wouldn't be offended if the word was used to describe Republicans running an investigation into a Democrat president.
"If Republicans were doing this you would be okay with calling it a political lynching because that's literally what it is," he said.
Pressed that the inquiry wasn't literally a lynching he turned to a reporter and asked, "Do you get what's going on?"
"What's happened to your business? If we as Republicans took a Democratic president and did this to them you would not be so offended by the word," he said.
When a reporter noted that lynching was a literal term, he chided them saying, "give me a little credit for understanding that nobody is saying they're trying to kill the president."
"[But] impeachment is the death penalty for a politician," he said.
Graham's comments reflect the escalating rhetoric and rising tensions surrounding the impeachment process, which were punctuated Tuesday by Trump's Tuesday morning tweet.
"So some day, if a Democrat becomes President and the Republicans win the House, even by a tiny margin, they can impeach the President, without due process or fairness or any legal rights," the president tweeted. "All Republicans must remember what they are witnessing here - a lynching. But we will WIN!"
The tweet drew an immediate backlash from black lawmakers, such as House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.), who said, "I really believe this man is prone to inflammatory statements, and that is one word no president ought to apply to himself. "
Graham, however, said House Democrats are more guilty of bad behavior by conducting an impeachment inquiry without a formal vote that would give House Republicans more power to defend the president and Trump's legal team the ability to call witnesses.
"If this continues in the House, it's a complete sham and I will do everything I can to make sure it doesn't live very long in the Senate," Graham said.
"If the shoe were on the other foot, if a Democratic president was going through a process like this created by the Republican majority in the House, the American media would be blowing up right now," he added.
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Democrats compared President Bill Clinton’s impeachment trial to a lynching as they debated whether to impeach him in 1998.
President Donald Trump similarly compared the impeachment inquiry he’s facing to a lynching, and Democrats quickly condemned his comment as racist.
“It makes you no better than those who burn crosses. It makes you no better than those who wear hoods and white robes,” Democratic Texas Rep. Al Green said Tuesday.
In December 1998, congressional representatives debated whether or not to impeach a president for the first time since the House voted to impeach President Andrew Johnson on Feb. 24, 1868, according to The New York Times. Multiple representatives compared Clinton’s impeachment to a lynching, and several others condemned it as a Republican attempt to remove Clinton from office.
Democratic Illinois Rep. Danny K. Davis condemned the impeachment trial as “a lynching,” and former Democratic Rhode Island Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy called it “a political lynching.”
Former Democratic Michigan Rep. John Conyers Jr. said that he was seeing a “Republican coup d’etat” — a phrase that Democratic Reps. Jerrold Nadler of New York and Maxine Waters of California both used as well.
Just to take the concept of Trump using the term as racist off the table before anyone tries to play the race card.
Trump is a racist.
Actually he isn’t one and there is nothing further from the truth than calling him a racist. It is interesting playing back the words of some questioning Trumps use of a term they used themselves 21 years ago.
The term 'lynching' has absolutely no roots with racism. To suggest it would is astoundingly wrong.
After all, Trump was the leading figure in The Birther Movement against Obama and Trump has clearly indicated and proven by his own word that he, "Is the least racist person in America."
Right?
This too. The 'race card' is never played by racists because they're innocent at birth.
"So some day, if a Democrat becomes President and the Republicans win the House, even by a tiny margin, they can impeach the President, without due process or fairness or any legal rights," the president tweeted. "All Republicans must remember what they are witnessing here - a lynching. But we will WIN!"
Yes. Your assertion is correct. If America abandons The principals of The Constitution and adopts the precepts of governance in line with a Putin-Erdogan autocracy.
After all, a constitution and a democracy allowed the rise of the Nazi Regime in Germany in the 1930s'.
Godwin’s law applies here.
No. It does not.
No different than when candidate Desantis of Florida commented "We don't want to monkey this up" referring to electing a Democrat Gillum, who is a black American who was planning on raising taxes and pushing other Progressive policies . The MSM went wild over it, calling Desantis "RACIST" for using the word "monkey". The Left are out of the book "1984" by changing the words we can use and changing the meaning of them to suit their needs. The only difference is it only applies when someone they are against uses these different words or phrases, then it becomes racist. Dick Lamm told us about the Left some time back.
And now it is the same thing with this lynching. Aren't we about tired of the new dictionary from the left which is missing many words and has changed the meaning of perfectly good words into perversions instead.
Exactly! It is as you describe.
Epic hypocrisy. They'll never admit it.
Joe Biden called Clinton's impeachment a lynching...
Democrats response: Crickets.
Sean - the Dems/Libs will grasp at anything to go after Trump. If Trump were to say "It depends on what the word "Is" means", they would double down on their let's hang him.
This is really getting to be sad and extremely disheartening that a political party cares nothing for the country and the people who have voted them into office and, instead, play/do/act just like they're back in grade school with their "Na na nana na na".
Coming to NT is beginning to be a fretful thing because of all the hate and despicable manners of many. Sorry that it has gone this far.
And Joe Biden told Ukraine they were not going to get the money if they didn't fire Shokin, the General Prosecutor of Ukraine, basically because Biden said Shokin investigating Burisma owned by Mykola Zlochevsky. The fired him. Well, guess what! Zlochevsky came back to Ukraine and was completely exonerated by the replacement prosecutor. Hunter stayed on the Board of Directors for Burisma and everything was fine until Trump questioned this fact. Then all hell broke out, charging Trump of wanting some answers.
Trump is assumed guilty even before any investigation, but Biden and son are considered innocent and to investigate it is out of the question. The Democrats hypocrisy is overwhelming. Talk among the Democrats about Articles of Impeachment started even before Trump took office and Al Green has brought Articles of Impeachment to the House Floor 4 times, starting in May 2017. I believe there was another one before that one. To this date as far as I know Mykola Zlochevsky has never been convicted of any crimes.
Is there any proof at all that either one of them did anything illegal? No. Just another conspiracy theory thrown out there by trump. No proof, no evidence, nothing. Joe was acting in an official capacity as a rep of the USA. He got a prosecutor that refused to prosecute corruption fired. Trump was acting in his OWN interests, not those of the USA. Hunter Biden? He was paid by a private company, not illegal. If it is, all of trumps kids belong in prison.
Kyiv Post
Court reinstates case against Mykola Zlochevsky
Published June 16, 2018. Updated June 16 2018 at 2:16 pm
The Solomyansky District Court in Kyiv annulled the ruling of Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAP) to close a criminal proceeding on the alleged illegal licensing of companies belonging to ex-Ecology Minister Mykola Zlochevsky’s companies, according to Liga.net.
The news agency cited an unnamed law enforcement source, with an attached picture of a court ruling from June 15.
The court satisfied a complaint from lawmaker Tetyana Chornovol and the decision can’t be appealed.
The criminal proceeding opened in June 2015 against the employees of the Ministry of Ecology of Ukraine, and Zlochevsky in particular, as they allegedly illegally issued oil and gas licenses to the companies that belonged to Zlochevsky in 2010-2012. The proceeding was closed in August.
Chief Anti-Corruption Prosecutor Nazar Kholodnytsky said there was no proof to continue with the case against Zlochevsky.
“We made this decision with SAP, and I am not hiding it,” Kholodnytsky told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s “Schemes,” an investigative TV-program. “The investigating authority did not obtain sufficient data – both for a notice of suspicion and for ending the proceedings. There was no proof of a crime.”
Zlochevsky was appointed by ex-President Viktor Yanukovych and currently owns the biggest number of oil and gas licenses in Ukraine – a whopping 38 permits , according to the Anti-Corruption Action Center. He is also the shareholder of oil and gas company Burisma Holding Ltd.
The criminal proceedings against Zlochevsky have been first opened in 2014 as he was charged with unlawful enrichment. He fled Ukraine shortly after and was put on the wanted list by the General Prosecutor’s Office.
However, he was later taken off the list in 2016 . The unlawful enrichment case against Zlochevsky was transformed into a tax evasion case. Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko closed the case on tax evasion against Zlochevsky in January 2017, with Burisma paying Hr 180 million to the budget.
In 2015, a British court had found insufficient evidence of financial corruption against Zlochevsky and unblocked his bank accounts with some $23 million.
The Burisma Group announced in January 2017 that all procedural and judicial proceedings against Zlochevsky and his operating companies in Ukraine were closed. This decision is the result of “many months of mutual work between the two teams – the General Prosecutor’s Office and Burisma Group,” Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported in February.
Investigative journalist Dmytro Gnap published a recording of a conversation with fugitive lawmaker Oleksandr Onyshchenko, where he said that Zlochevsky paid $100 million for closing a criminal case against him and unblocking his assets in Ukraine.
The journalists also investigated the relations between Zlochevsky and companies that Burisma is partnering with. Zlochevsky’s Burisma Group had supplied natural gas to companies owned by President Petro Poroshenko and his top allied lawmakers Ihor Kononenko and Oleh Gladkovsky, according to “Schemes” in 2017.
Onyshchenko released an alleged recording that implicates Poroshenko and Zlochevsky in corrupt agreements.
Some Ukrainian media reported that Zlochevsky returned to Ukraine.
The criminal proceedings against Zlochevsky have been first opened in 2014 as he was charged with unlawful enrichment. He fled Ukraine shortly after and was put on the wanted list by the General Prosecutor’s Office.
However, he was later taken off the list in 2016 . The unlawful enrichment case against Zlochevsky was transformed into a tax evasion case. Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko closed the case on tax evasion against Zlochevsky in January 2017, with Burisma paying Hr 180 million to the budget.
So, Zlochevsky's case was first opened in 2014 when Shokin was the prosecutor. .Zlochevsky fled the country after being put on Shokin's wanted list, but was taken off the list after Biden made his demand in late 2016.. Shokin was fired in in March 2016. Biden made his demand in December of 2015. A new prosecutor was named for a month and then the Prosecutor, Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko took Zlochevsky off the wanted list and closed the case on tax evasion against Zlochevsky in January 2017.
Now we don't think this should be investigated, but Trump should be impeached for wanting some answers on a phone call that was not even private?
That's what I'm talking about. Obama's administration, in my opinion, was one of the most corrupt in history and there has been no investigation into this matter. If you read all this from Ukraine's oldest English newspaper of events as they were happening and are unable to see the timeline of events and how they seem to relate, I'm sorry, I can't help you and refuse to waste time discussing. I bet you haven't even read it.
Well golly gee that would be why you investigate to find if they did, that's how things work. Fortunately not everyone just throws mud at everything because they are still butt hurt because Hillaryious Hillary lost a election.
Um, no. The fact that you would even suggest that with trump in office means you have lost all credibility.
The Obama regime in its failed attempt to transform America as we knew her was the most corrupt regime in recent American history and their so called transparency completely faux.
Yep!
🦗 🦗 🦗
This is an intentional redirection of conversation. There's nothing easier than to throw red meat out there to change the subject. People fall for it every time. Going on msm to exclaim outrage is only feeding trumps base. They are quite aware he is racist and they don't care.
Mention it and move on.
Yep, go look at the front page of fox news.
Exactly. All trumps base sees are black people complaining again and demanding more from whites. They don't understand why this term would still be considered offensive. I mean come on........They haven't been mistreated or lynched for years. Blacks just need to get over it.
Wake up PJ. It's 945 EST.
Yeah but I'm still trying to recover from 20 hours of traveling back from alaska. I'm not going to lie, I could have bounced back sooner a couple years ago. Lol
I stand by my comment but acknowledge both sides have had it.
I just watched on CNN where they asked a Congressman who was condemning Trump for saying lynching what was different when he used it to describe Clintons impeachment. His response? Oh I can say that....
Exactly and that's part of the reason trump supporters and others view it as blacks just looking for something to be offended about. They have cried wolf so many times that they are no longer taken seriously and partly why trump was elected.
'If they didn't have double standards, they wouldn't have any standards at all.'
Gee when I make remarks like that, they get removed as sweeping generalizations.
I wonder why yours won't be removed?
Once someone is schlonged by the 'president' are there some kind of shots they should get, like to prevent STDs?
Fox News front page is right on! It’s well done
Perfect reply! 👍👏🎯
The word "Lynching"sounds okay to me !
Rep. Gregory Meeks and Rep. Danny Davis come to mind !
Exactly. The clip of those saying what was going on with Clinton was a form of lynching while saying it was inappropriate for Trump to say what they did regarding his situation is hypocrisy at its most obvious.