Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) predicted on Sunday that Vice President Kamala Harris will be the target of an impeachment effort if Republicans take control of the House of Representatives in 2022—because she tweeted support for a bail fund for Black Lives Matter protesters.
During an appearance on Fox News Sunday, Graham first pointed out that former President Donald Trump told him that while he’s “ready to move on and rebuild the Republican Party” following his second impeachment acquittal, he’s also “mad at some folks” in the party.
“I think Sen. McConnell’s speech, he got a load off a chest obviously but unfortunately he put a load on the back of Republicans. That speech you will see in 2022 campaigns,” Graham declared, referencing the Senate minority leader’s denunciation of Trump’s “dereliction of duty” in inciting an insurrection.
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Graham, a loyal Trump defender who advised the president’s impeachment legal team, went on to decry the impeachment sequel as “unconstitutional” and an “affront to the rule of law” before warning that Republicans will be looking for payback in the near future.
“And if you use this model, I don’t know how Kamala Harris doesn’t get impeached if the Republicans take over the House,” Graham said.
“Because she actually bailed out rioters and one of the rioters went back to the streets and broke somebody’s head open. So we’ve opened Pandora’s Box here and I’m sad for the country.”
While Harris tweeted support of the Minnesota Freedom Fund in June, there is no evidence that she bailed anyone out.
In addition, while Graham dangled the idea of impeachment for Harris because of her tweet, he insisted that Trump bore no responsibility for his actions on Jan. 6 that led a mob to storm the U.S. Capitol to stop the certification of President Joe Biden’s election victory.
“He bears responsibility of pushing narratives about the election that I think are not sound and not true, but this was politically protected speech,” he stated. “The speech on Jan. 6 was not an incitement to violence.”
Graham also dismissed all evidence that shows Trump refused to act as the riot raged on, even though the former president spoke to several Republican lawmakers and was well aware of the danger they faced and the threat to Vice President Mike Pence’s life.
“It doesn’t tell me a whole lot, because it’s all hearsay,” Graham shrugged. “Could the president have done more? Yeah. Did he incite this riot by his speech? Absolutely not.”
Wallace would eventually corner Graham over remarks the pro-Trump senator made the day after the Capitol riot, noting that Graham said at the time that Trump allowed the riot to happen and “the president needs to understand that his actions were the problem, not the solution.”
“It sure sounds like you’re saying that he violated his oath of office,” the Fox News anchor said.
“No, I think what he did is he encourage his supporters throughout the country to fight like hell to take back an election he thought was stolen—a lot of politicians have said that,” the Republican senator responded.
Graham, meanwhile, wrapped up his interview with some over-the-top cheerleading for Trump and the ex-president’s family, claiming Trump and his daughter-in-law Lara were the “future” of the Republican Party. He further asserted that Lara Trump was the “biggest winner” of the impeachment trial as it made her the favorite in 2022’s North Carolina Senate race.
