The powerful head of the Senate Judiciary Committee teamed up with the Senate majority leader to send a strong message, backed by 46 Republicans, to the House: Your impeachment effort, if it continues without due process, is dead on arrival.
The vote in favor of the GOP resolution means there is very little chance the Senate would muster the two-thirds super majority needed to oust a president.
Graham's resolution, co-sponsored by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, effectively means that the House is merely going through the motions -- as any impeachment it sends to the Senate, barring some extraordinary development, is already facing a very high barrier.
Though some Republicans, such as Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, balked at backing Graham's denunciation of the House's secret "kangaroo court," the vote makes clear that those few House Democrats who openly promote the impeachment theme face an uphill battle, despite the eagerness of much of the legacy media.
Lindsey Graham
sends House a message.
At a Washington press conference Graham said that "the purpose of the resolution is to let the House know that the process you’re engaging in regarding the attempted impeachment of President Trump is out of bounds. It’s inconsistent with due process as we know it. It’s a Star Chamber type inquiry and it’s a substantial deviation from what the House has done in the past regarding impeachment of other presidents."
The South Carolina lawmaker drew attention to a previous attempt, in 2017, to bring impeachment action against Trump when Rep. Al Green, Texas Democrat, "wanted to open up an impeachment inquiry, which is the right way to do it, by the way; 137 Democrats voted with the GOP against impeaching President Trump -- not one Republican for an inquiry. And what happened is that the attempt to open up an inquiry of impeachment against President Trump failed miserably." Graham accused House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats of creating "a new process that I think is very dangerous for the country."
He added that instead of the Judiciary Committee looking at a potential impeachable offense, "they’ve created a process in the Intel Committee that’s behind closed doors, doesn’t provide access to the President’s accuser, shuts Republicans out for all practical purposes and is an unworthy substitute for the way you need to do it, is at its core un-American."
Graham compared the current process with President Bill Clinton's impeachment fight. "In 1998, in October we had an impeachment inquiry vote on the floor of the House" that included the backing of 31 Democrats. Graham then recited a catalog of rights that the House afforded to Clinton, his team and members of the minority.
Graham added, "What’s going on is they run around the impeachment process creating a secret proceeding behind closed doors, that fundamentally is in my view, denies due process, and when you’re talking about removing the President of the United States, seems to me you’d want to have a process that is consistent with who we are as Americans.
"And consistent with what Bill Clinton was allowed to do, Richard Nixon was allowed to do and the process in the House today, I think, is danger to the future of the presidency. Because if you can drive down a president’s poll numbers by having proceedings where you selectively leak information, where the president, who’s the subject of all of this, is pretty much shut out. God help future presidents."
The Graham-McConnell resolution means, said Graham, that if House Democrats believe they have a case against Trump, they should "vote to open up an inquiry, allow Republicans to have a say, make sure the President is allowed to participate in a meaningful manner, like we did in the past. That’s the way to do it. What you’re doing today, in my view, is unfair to the President, and is dangerous to the presidency."
Reporters questioning Graham in general appeared to favor the House Democrat point of view.
The vote in favor of the GOP resolution means there is very little chance the Senate would muster the two-thirds super majority needed to oust a president.
Graham's resolution, co-sponsored by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, effectively means that the House is merely going through the motions -- as any impeachment it sends to the Senate, barring some extraordinary development, is already facing a very high barrier.
Though some Republicans, such as Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, balked at backing Graham's denunciation of the House's secret "kangaroo court," the vote makes clear that those few House Democrats who openly promote the impeachment theme face an uphill battle, despite the eagerness of much of the legacy media.
Lindsey Graham
sends House a message.
At a Washington press conference Graham said that "the purpose of the resolution is to let the House know that the process you’re engaging in regarding the attempted impeachment of President Trump is out of bounds. It’s inconsistent with due process as we know it. It’s a Star Chamber type inquiry and it’s a substantial deviation from what the House has done in the past regarding impeachment of other presidents."
The South Carolina lawmaker drew attention to a previous attempt, in 2017, to bring impeachment action against Trump when Rep. Al Green, Texas Democrat, "wanted to open up an impeachment inquiry, which is the right way to do it, by the way; 137 Democrats voted with the GOP against impeaching President Trump -- not one Republican for an inquiry. And what happened is that the attempt to open up an inquiry of impeachment against President Trump failed miserably." Graham accused House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats of creating "a new process that I think is very dangerous for the country."
He added that instead of the Judiciary Committee looking at a potential impeachable offense, "they’ve created a process in the Intel Committee that’s behind closed doors, doesn’t provide access to the President’s accuser, shuts Republicans out for all practical purposes and is an unworthy substitute for the way you need to do it, is at its core un-American."
Graham compared the current process with President Bill Clinton's impeachment fight. "In 1998, in October we had an impeachment inquiry vote on the floor of the House" that included the backing of 31 Democrats. Graham then recited a catalog of rights that the House afforded to Clinton, his team and members of the minority.
Graham added, "What’s going on is they run around the impeachment process creating a secret proceeding behind closed doors, that fundamentally is in my view, denies due process, and when you’re talking about removing the President of the United States, seems to me you’d want to have a process that is consistent with who we are as Americans.
"And consistent with what Bill Clinton was allowed to do, Richard Nixon was allowed to do and the process in the House today, I think, is danger to the future of the presidency. Because if you can drive down a president’s poll numbers by having proceedings where you selectively leak information, where the president, who’s the subject of all of this, is pretty much shut out. God help future presidents."
The Graham-McConnell resolution means, said Graham, that if House Democrats believe they have a case against Trump, they should "vote to open up an inquiry, allow Republicans to have a say, make sure the President is allowed to participate in a meaningful manner, like we did in the past. That’s the way to do it. What you’re doing today, in my view, is unfair to the President, and is dangerous to the presidency."
Reporters questioning Graham in general appeared to favor the House Democrat point of view.
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