Lindsey Graham Blusters: We'll Call Adam Schiff as a Key Witness in Senate Phase of Impeachment

If I believed him, I'd say this was great news, but I don't believe him. He says things that he thinks will get people to make positive memes about him on Twitter. But then he doesn't do a damn thing.

He also says that the fake whistleblower should be called as a witness, or else there would not be any trial.

Here's his latest bid for meme-immortality.

Graham also said he wouldn’t let a trial of Trump be based on hearsay evidence alone. A trial would also not be held if the whistleblower doesn't testify, he said.

"Let's say they get 218 votes. Here’s what I promise the country. We’re not going to try the president of the United States based on hearsay. So any resolution setting up a trial in the Senate, I'm going to make sure that hearsay cannot be the basis of an impeachment allegation," Graham told host Sean Hannity.

"If you invoke the hearsay rule, what would be left?

"A trial in the Senate, to me, should not legitimize what's going on in the House. No American is denied the right to call witnesses on their behalf, except for Donald Trump. No American is accused of wrongdoing anonymously, except Donald Trump. What they’re doing in the House is a danger to the presidency itself.

McConnell, however, says that if the House impeaches, the Senate is required to put on a trial.

"I don't think there’s any question that we have to take up the matter. The rules of impeachment are very clear, we’ll have to have a trial. My own view is that we should give people the opportunity to put the case on," McConnell told reporters after being asked about dismissing the articles of impeachment.

There is chatter that some Senators may actually prefer not just to have a trial, but a long trial, in order to keep Democrat Senators running for president off the campaign trail and trapped in the Senate.

From the Washington Post:

Some Republican senators and their advisers are privately discussing whether to pressure GOP leaders to stage a lengthy impeachment trial beginning in January to scramble the Democratic presidential race -- potentially keeping six contenders in Washington until the eve of the Iowa caucuses or longer.

...

"That might be a strategy," Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) said with a coy smile when asked about the possibility of a trial that disrupts the Democratic campaign. "But I’ll leave that up to others. I'm just a lowly worker."

I think that's too clever by half and, who knows, possibly either an attempt to scare Democrat senators or an attempt to provide cover to Senators like Mitt Romney who actually want a long trial so that they can build a case for actually impeaching Trump. But it would be sold to Trump supporting Republicans as some kind of devious move to hurt Democrats.

Because they do like lying to us. Most of their political strategizing involves lying to conservative voters to pursue agendas that conservatives opposed while telling us that this is, in some tricksy way, all in the service of advancing our interests.

posted by Ace of Spades at 04:13 PM

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