Graham threatens Democrats: we’ll ignore impeachment unless whistleblower is exposed

Charlemagne · Nov 11, 2019

Lindsey Graham threatens Democrats: we’ll ignore impeachment unless whistleblower is exposed

BY VINNIE LONGOBARDO

PUBLISHED ON NOVEMBER 10, 2019

Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) has been hanging around Donald Trump way too much for his own good.

Here is a man with a perfectly good law degree who, as a 25-year veteran of Congress, presumably has a working knowledge of the U.S. Constitution by now.

Add your name to the millions demanding accountability of the president. Tell Speaker Pelosi and the House: Launch impeachment proceedings against Donald Trump!

Yet, enthralled by whatever magic spell cast over him by Donald Trump — or incriminating kompromat, if you choose to believe the whispered speculation of those who find Graham’s sudden transformation into one of the president’s most fervent defenders oddly suspicious — the senator now feels free to go on Maria Bartiromo’s Fox Newsprogram and offer his own unique interpretation of the Constitution’s impeachment process.

While the Senate will not even be involved in the impeachment of the president until after the House of Representatives has completed its investigation of Trump and compiled and voted upon articles of impeachment laying out the charges and the evidence underlying those charges against him, Senator Graham doesn’t seem to understand the role of the Senate as an impartial jury that will need to hear the evidence and make the final decision on whether or not to remove the president from office.

Instead, Senator Graham already seems to have prejudged the outcome of the trial phase of the impeachment in favor of the president.

One clue to his closed mind on the subject was his insistence last week that he wouldn’t even read the transcripts of the testimony given by witnesses in the House impeachment inquiry hearings.

He gave another clue today while speaking with Fox News’ Bartiromo, stating that, unless the identity of the whistleblower who brought Trump’s corrupt and self-serving extortion of Ukraine to public attention was revealed, he would consider any impeachment referral from the House of Representatives to be “invalid.”

Even more outrageously, Senator Graham claimed — without any basis in the text of the Constitution — that the Senate had no obligation to conduct an impeachment trial if the House referral is deemed invalid. He made the claim without specifying exactly who would be determining the validity of the referral.

“I consider any impeachment in the House that doesn’t allow us to know who the whistleblower is to be invalid,” Graham pontificated. “Because without the whistleblower complaint, we wouldn’t be talking about any of this.”

Well, praise be the whistleblower then! Especially since virtually everything that the whistleblower has alleged in his duly reported complaint through the proper official channels of the intelligence community’s inspector general’s office has been subsequently verified by the testimony of other administration officials in their sworn testimony before the House impeachment inquiry committee.

“I also see the need for Hunter Biden to be called to adequately defend the president,” Graham added. “And if you don’t do those two things, it’s a complete joke.”

At this point, it’s obvious that Senator Graham sees his role not as an impartial juror examining the evidence uncovered and rightfully forwarded for prosecution by the elected representatives of America’s citizens in the House but as a spokesperson for the president who appears on cable news shows to parrot Trump’s distractive lies designed to take attention away from the corruption, illegal extortion, and self-dealing of his administration.

That Senator Graham is willing to rewrite the Constitution in his own mind to include conditional provisions on impeachment that don’t actually exist shows the level of desperation that the Republicans are sinking to in order to maintain their own power — despite the clear signs of criminality far beyond anything this nation has ever seen before.

You can watch a video clip of Senator Graham speaking on Fox News in the excerpt below.

The “Dirty” Truth@AKA_RealDirty

.@SundayFutures with @MariaBartiromo Thread.@LindseyGrahamSC says any impeachment that doesn’t call the whistleblower to testify will be dead on arrival in the Senate.

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https://washingtonpress.com/2019/11/10/lindsey-graham-threatens-democrats-well-ignore-impeachment-unless-whistleblower-is-exposed-2/

Knuckle Ball · Nov 11, 2019

Lindsay is ignoring it anyway. That’s his plan.

Dems aren’t going to waste time with this nonsense. Full speed ahead and GOP can call their “Defense” witnesses during the Senate trial.

Dutch Oven · Nov 11, 2019

The Dems have no intention of concluding their inquiry before the 2020 election. The Senate will never have to hold an impeachment trial.

Knuckle Ball · Nov 11, 2019

Dutch Oven said:
The Dems have no intention of concluding their inquiry before the 2020 election. The Senate will never have to hold an impeachment trial.

I think you’re mistaken. Dems don’t want to drag this out like the Mueller Inquiry...by having the process take so long it loses any sense of urgency and the public tunes out. They want to act swiftly and immediately to hopefully get the Impeachment hearings concluded before Christmas and punted over to the Senate for the New Year.

bver_hunter · Nov 11, 2019

Democrats' new moves show House could wrap up impeachment by Christmas:

https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/07/politics/democrat-impeachment-timeline/index.html

Anyway here is Lindsey Graham's very hypocritical stance on Impeachment in relation to a Quid Pro Quo:

https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry...achment_n_5dc83dd1e4b0fcfb7f6829d9?ri18n=true

Gooseifur · Nov 12, 2019

He should testify behind closed doors to both parties and have his identity protected.

mellowjello · Nov 12, 2019

Gooseifur said:
He should testify behind closed doors to both parties and have his identity protected.

He shouldn't have to, and he doesn't need to.
He's already been corroborated a thousand times over.
Function of the whistleblower is to point to the evidence of wrongdoing, and that is investigated as per the Inspector General who
is Republican and a Trump appointee.
Whistleblower's opinion or political bias is completely irrelevant.
What don't you get.

shack · Nov 12, 2019

mellowjello said:
He shouldn't have to, and he doesn't need to.
He's already been corroborated a thousand times over.
Function of the whistleblower is to point to the evidence of wrongdoing, and that is investigated as per the Inspector General who
is Republican and a Trump appointee.
Whistleblower's opinion or political bias is completely irrelevant.
What don't you get.

As per the syndrome, trump devotees lose the ability to think rationally and independently. All they can do is puppet trumps and GOP talking points.

Anbarandy · Nov 12, 2019

Gooseifur said:
He should testify behind closed doors to both parties and have his identity protected.

What evidence can be gleaned by this approach that would be material to the impeachment inquiry that hasn't already been made evident and corroborated as evidence?

bver_hunter · Nov 12, 2019

Gooseifur said:
He should testify behind closed doors to both parties and have his identity protected.

After these despicable Republicans are trying to make his identity public, that may also compromise his own person security and that of his family??

Dutch Oven · Nov 12, 2019

Anbarandy said:
What evidence can be gleaned by this approach that would be material to the impeachment inquiry that hasn't already been made evident and corroborated as evidence?

If the American public are convinced that the whistle blower was not a bona fide patriot, but rather a Democratic operative placed in the deep state looking to gin up grounds for impeachment, it will have an enormous political impact on how the public views impeachment. As your colleagues are fond of reminding, the inquiry is a political process, not a trial.

This political impact is well understood by the Dems, which is why they are trying to stop the whistleblower from having to testify.

Anbarandy · Nov 12, 2019

Dutch Oven said:
If the American public are convinced that the whistle blower was not a bona fide patriot, but rather a Democratic operative placed in the deep state looking to gin up grounds for impeachment, it will have an enormous political impact on how the public views impeachment. As your colleagues are fond of reminding, the inquiry is a political process, not a trial.

This political impact is well understood by the Dems, which is why they are trying to stop the whistleblower from having to testify.

'Don' Trump and his co-conspirators have provided very potent 'gin' to the tonic of articles of impeachment.

What exactly are these grounds for impeachment that the "Democratic operative placed in the deep state" has 'ginned up'?

Dutch Oven · Nov 12, 2019

Anbarandy said:
What exactly are these grounds for impeachment that the "Democratic operative placed in the deep state" has 'ginned up'?

I think the Dem's are going with that old favorite - "reasons to be thunk up later".

Anbarandy · Nov 12, 2019

Dutch Oven said:
I think the Dem's are going with that old favorite - "reasons to be thunk up later".

What did the whistler 'gin up' as you previously suggested?

Dutch Oven · Nov 12, 2019

Anbarandy said:
What did the whistler 'gin up' as you previously suggested?

It's hard to say, without the whistleblower testifying, just how much he/she "ginned up" themselves, as opposed to how much of the complaint was drafted with the good counsel of Adam Schiff and his staff. Regardless, I still haven't seen the evidence of this quid pro quo the complaint refers to. All I've seen is the normal exchange of obligations between nations that is part of virtually every foreign policy commitment. But when focused on the narrow (and the only politically relevant) definition of "something for Trump (and not the country) in exchange for something from the country", I haven't seen it yet. Of course, the whistle blower didn't claim to have any evidence either, apart from hearsay. When you don't know anything and you file a whistle blower report, I think that's pretty much categorical 80 proof gin! And if the Dem's had any hand in coordinating this debacle, I think that would assure that they would lose the House, and therefore the ability to conduct such shenanigans for a while.

Anbarandy · Nov 12, 2019

Dutch Oven said:
It's hard to say, without the whistleblower testifying, just how much he/she "ginned up" themselves, as opposed to how much of the complaint was drafted with the good counsel of Adam Schiff and his staff. Regardless, I still haven't seen the evidence of this quid pro quo the complaint refers to. All I've seen is the normal exchange of obligations between nations that is part of virtually every foreign policy commitment. But when focused on the narrow (and the only politically relevant) definition of "something for Trump (and not the country) in exchange for something from the country", I haven't seen it yet. Of course, the whistle blower didn't claim to have any evidence either, apart from hearsay. When you don't know anything and you file a whistle blower report, I think that's pretty much categorical 80 proof gin! And if the Dem's had any hand in coordinating this debacle, I think that would assure that they would lose the House, and therefore the ability to conduct such shenanigans for a while.

"It's hard to say", so you say.

If it's as you say "it's hard to say" without knowing how much of the complaint was "ginned up" by the whistle blower himself as opposed to how much the actual complaint was ginned up with the help of Shifty Schiff and his Shifty staff, then it is truly remarkable that the Democrat deposited, deep state plant's complaint has been corroborated by many, many witness depositions. That must mean that all these other witnesses conspired with the whistle blower, with themselves, with Shifty Schiff and his Shifty staff to "gin up" their depositions with such accuracy as to be so eerily similar. This scenario defies whatever alternative narrative you are proffering and supposing.

Is it truly that all you've seen is the normal exchange of obligations between nations and not a quid pro quo, aka bribery, aka a shakedown, aka extortion, aka an abuse of power, then you must live in an insulated bubble of denial.

Gooseifur · Nov 12, 2019

mellowjello said:
He shouldn't have to, and he doesn't need to.
He's already been corroborated a thousand times over.
Function of the whistleblower is to point to the evidence of wrongdoing, and that is investigated as per the Inspector General who
is Republican and a Trump appointee.
Whistleblower's opinion or political bias is completely irrelevant.
What don't you get.

Then why have anyone testify if their statements have already been corroborated?

Gooseifur · Nov 12, 2019

shack said:
As per the syndrome, trump devotees lose the ability to think rationally and independently. All they can do is puppet trumps and GOP talking points.

Wrong again, I'm not a Trump devotee, I thought the whole point of this exercise is to be transparent to the American people? They media and I'm sure some GOP members already know he he is and would be charged if they leaked his identity. I'm for impeachment I just don't think the senate will convict. I want everyone to testify including Trump.

Gooseifur · Nov 12, 2019

Anbarandy said:
What evidence can be gleaned by this approach that would be material to the impeachment inquiry that hasn't already been made evident and corroborated as evidence?

So he can be cross examined, to make things more transparent to the American public. There is a lot of distrust. If you are trying to make a compelling case to impeach, you can't seem like your hiding something.

Gooseifur · Nov 12, 2019

bver_hunter said:
After these despicable Republicans are trying to make his identity public, that may also compromise his own person security and that of his family??

If they do they will be charged and rightfully so.

Graham threatens Democrats: we’ll ignore impeachment unless whistleblower is exposed

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