Lindsey Graham Defends Donald Trump’s ‘Lynching’ Claim: ‘This Is A Lynching In Every Sense’
Sen. Lindsey Graham defended Donald Trump’s claim that House Democrats are “lynching” him with their impeachment investigation. The Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman told reporters on Tuesday that black people shouldn’t be offended by the president’s use of the language because it is “accurate.”
According to The Hill, Graham slammed the impeachment proceedings and defended the president, saying he should be able to confront the whistleblower who brought his phone call with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky to the attention of government watchdogs.
“This is a lynching in every sense. This is un-American,” Graham said.
“I’ve never seen a situation in my lifetime as a lawyer where somebody is accused of a major misconduct who cannot confront the accuser, call witnesses on her behalf and have the discussion in the light of day so the public can judge,” he added.
Assembled reporters pushed back, asking if the South Carolina Republican understood why black people would find the comparison offensive. Graham doubled down.
“Yes, African Americans have [been] lynched. Other people have been lynched throughout history. What does lynching mean? That a mob grabs you, they don’t give you a chance to defend yourself, they don’t tell you what happened to you, they just destroy you. That’s exactly what’s happening in the United States House of Representatives right now.”
He continued, calling the impeachment inquiry a form of “mob” rule and a “sham” and vowed to fight back against the investigation in every way he could.
Graham’s defense comes after Trump tweeted that the impeachment inquiry was a “lynching,” as The Inquisitr previously reported. The president started out Tuesday with a series of tweets that began with an attack on Hillary Clinton, and then moved on to his approval rating and recent polling data. He also praised House Republicans who voted to censure Adam Schiff, the leader of the House Intelligence Committee.
That’s when he turned to address the impeachment, saying that if the roles were reversed and a Democrat took office in the future with a Republican-led House, that president could be impeached “without due process.” He vowed that he would win in the end but called the process of impeachment a “lynching.”
His comments were met with immediate backlash, with people criticizing Trump’s language as racist and offensive. Some pointed to the long history of lynching in the United States, an act that was recently made a hate crime after the Senate passed the Justice for Victims of Lynching Act.
