Republicans Are Being Used By Russia, Former GOP Rep. David Jolly Says: ‘It’s Gravely Dangerous’
Former Republican Rep. David Jolly recently said that members of the Republican Party are being used by Russians, arguing that their behavior is “gravely dangerous.”
“Through their own ignorance, negligence or maleficence, they are being used by Russia,” Jolly said. “Republican senators and Republican members of Congress tonight are being used by Russia because they are unwilling to look at the truth.”
Jolly made the comments during an appearance on the MSNBC show The Last Word with Ali Velshi on Monday night, per Newsweek. Per the recap, the segment began when Velshi played a clip from former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bill Taylor as he spoke before the House as part of the impeachment probe. In the clip from Taylor’s testimony, he spoke about the president reportedly holding some $400 million in previously-scheduled aid from the Ukrainian government.
The president stands accused of withholding the funds amid his requests for Ukraine to investigate theories relating to former Vice President Joe Biden, his son Hunter, and a DNC server involved in the 2016 election.
Jolly, a Republican from Florida who served as a member of Congress from that state’s 13th district from 2014 to 2017, said that the Republican Party has “abandoned truth,” per Newsweek.
The MSNBC host said he believed that members of the Republican Party — citing late Arizona Sen. John McCain, Sen. Lindsey Graham, and Jolly himself — would not have peddled conspiracy theories in defense of the president prior to 2015. Jolly seemed to suggest, however, that the behavior of current Republicans could be linked to past actions of the party, arguing that some Republicans have “failed” to serve Americans.
“What I’ve learned these last three years is it wasn’t a law and order party, just a party that hated Bill Clinton,” Jolly said. “It wasn’t a constitutional party when Barack Obama was in office, it was just a party that hated Barack Obama.”
Jolly said that Republicans embrace the president due to a “quest for power.”
As The Inquisitr has previously reported, earlier this month Jolly lashed out at Graham, calling the South Carolina Republican’s behavior “shameless.” Jolly had reacted to Graham’s comments about the House impeachment inquiry into Trump, in which Graham said he wouldn’t read transcripts of the closed-door testimony of witnesses who had testified in the probe.
Graham called the inquiry a “sham,” to which Jolly said members of the Republican Party had a difficult time defending the president, believing that Trump has already admitted to what he stands accused of doing in “bribing and extorting” a foreign leader in order to benefit his political career.
