Lindsey Graham goes further off the deep end
With each passing day over the past few weeks, the behavior of formerly reasonable Republican Senator Lindsey Graham becomes more inexplicable. He’s instantly transformed from Trump detractor to Trump cheerleader for no reason. He’s illegally calling for the prosecution of an innocent person who tried to expose Trump’s crimes. Most strangely of all, Graham has gone from a polished and smart guy to a tongue tied idiot who isn’t sure what he’s supposed to be saying. Today he’s going even faster in a stupid direction.
Yesterday, when his fellow Senate Judiciary Committee member Dianne Feinstein unilaterally released the long suppressed Trump-Russia dossier transcripts, Lindsey Graham seemed caught off guard. He had just finished going to extraordinary lengths to try to discredit the dossier. But when the media asked him about Feinstein’s move, he gave a befuddled response of approval. That raised eyebrows, as it further suggested that Graham is now taking marching orders on Trump-Russia from someone else. Today he tried to walk it back, but ended up going off the deep end.
First Graham tweeted “It’s not enough to simply release the transcript from the co-founder of FusionGPS Glenn Simpson. I want the entire story regarding Fusion GPS, the Dossier, and the Department of Justice to be revealed.” Okay, so he was walking it back. But then he tweeted “I’ve been clear that we need a Special Counsel to investigate the Trump campaign and Russia. It’s equally clear we need to investigate how DOJ conducted themselves regarding the Clinton e-mail investigation and the Trump campaign investigation.” Oh wait, now he wants the entire Department of Justice investigated? But he kept going.
Graham then tweeted “I want to find out – and believe the American people deserve – the entire story regarding FusionGPS, the Dossier, and DOJ – not just one portion of it.” What story? What is he even talking about? “The best way to start this process is to declassify how the dossier was used by the #DOJ and the DOJ’s interactions with Mr. Steele. We can do this and still protect sources and methods.” Ah right, he’s back to trying to falsely accuse Christopher Steele of being a criminal. It gets worse.
Graham went on to tweet “What Democrats call a distraction – looking at DOJ and FBI handling of Clinton email and Russia investigation – I call oversight. It is clear to me the top FBI agent handling the Clinton email investigation had extreme political bias.” Then he went on further: “It is also clear there were conflicts of interest which were ignored during the Trump/Russia investigation by DOJ and the use of the dossier produced by a political operative calls for congressional oversight.”
This was all within the span of an hour. He tried to say the same thing six times in a row, and it came out differently every time. How many times did Lindsey Graham just contradict himself in these tweets? Since when does he not stop and think about what he’s going to write before he writes it, to the point that he has to keep trying over and over? Was someone calling him up each time and telling him to try again? Graham has admitted his emails were stolen during the election. We deserve answers about whether the Russians have his emails, and whether they’re blackmailing him. If Graham keeps playing with this kind of fire, he’ll end up in prison.
Bill Palmer is the publisher of the political news outlet Palmer Report