Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) on Sunday took great pains to hammer into the GOP’s new line of ludicrously calling for unity, following the House’s vote last week to impeach President Trump for a second time for “incitement of insurrection,” as he expressed his vehement opposition to the upcoming Senate impeachment trial.
Last week, Graham — who egged on Trump’s bogus claims of election fraud for months — griped that impeaching Trump will be a cause for “great damage to the institutions of government and could invite further violence.”
Graham’s sudden attempt at kumbaya messaging came on the heels of the South Carolina Republican blasting his fellow Republican senators’ efforts to challenge President-elect Joe Biden’s electoral victory on the Senate floor, which happened hours after the deadly insurrection at the Capitol. Graham even took aim at his buddy Trump, who he’s had a “hell of a journey” with, on the Senate floor as well.
“I hate it to end this way. Oh, my god, I hate it,” Graham said earlier this month, before arguing that the President’s ploy to challenge the election results in Congress as “not going to do any good.”
However, after meeting the fairly low bar of ultimately rejecting efforts to object to Electoral College votes in Arizona and Pennsylvania earlier this month, a week later all appeared forgiven when Graham joined the president aboard Air Force One on a trip to Texas.
On Sunday, Graham formalized his unconditional loyalty to Trump in a letter to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) that argued “the Senate’s attempt to disqualify a President from future office who is no longer in office, would be an unconstitutional act of political vengeance.”
After writing that the Senate impeachment trial would “incite further division,” Graham tried to pose as an advocate for “healing.”
“The Senate should vote to dismiss the article of impeachment once it is received in the Senate. We will be delaying indefinitely, if not forever, the healing of this great Nation if we do otherwise,” Graham wrote. “Our obligation to the People we represent is clear. History will judge us harshly, as it should, if we do not rise to the occasion of the historic moment in our history.”
My letter to Democratic Leader Schumer.
The Senate should vote to dismiss the article of impeachment once it is received in the Senate. We will be delaying indefinitely, if not forever, the healing of this great Nation if we do otherwise. pic.twitter.com/fjVcf7iVPf
— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) January 17, 2021
Graham issued his letter to Schumer on Sunday shortly after appearing on Fox News, when he railed against the House’s vote to impeach Trump for a second time and urged his colleagues in the Senate against doing the same.
“To my Republican colleagues, please do not justify and legitimize what the House did and stand up for the Constitution like we did on January 6. Stop this before it stops,” Graham said on Fox News. “I hope every Republican will reject the second impeachment of President Trump.”
Graham then took aim at Biden as he urged the President-elect to halt the impeachment process.
“If you do not stand up against the impeachment of President Trump after he leaves office, you’re an incredibly weak figure,” Graham said.
Graham added that Trump, who condemned the violence at the Capitol earlier this month but took no responsibility for it, is “trying to heal nation”
