Lindsey Graham has frequently said that he doesn’t agree with the Ukraine impeachment inquiry against Donald Trump, but he took his attacks on the House Democrat-led process on Sunday to the next level when he announced that he believed the whistleblower who brought the issue to the world’s attention is a “deep state” operative.
According to Mediaite , Graham made the bold claim while speaking with FOX’s Maria Bartiromo on Sunday, saying that he believed that the whistleblower had worked with House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff.
“When you find out who the whistleblower is, I’m confident, you’re gonna find out it’s somebody from the deep state. You’re gonna find out find they had interactions with Schiff and this thing’s gonna stink to high heaven,” Graham said.
While it isn’t the first time that someone has suggested the whistleblower worked with Schiff in exposing the phone call that is at the heart of the impeachment inquiry, invoking the deep state conspiracy is a bold statement from such a prominent Republican.
The South Carolina Senator went on to say that he didn’t believe Democrats wanted to know “the truth” and so they were trying to keep the whistleblower’s identity under wraps. Currently, the whistleblower is protected under a 1989 statute that protects people who express concerns about those in power.
Not only does Graham think that the whistleblower is working with Schiff, but he suggested that the entire inquiry is a conspiracy led by former CIA director John Brennan, who left the position in 2017.
“They don’t want you to know that the whistleblower was on the Brennan team,” Graham said. “He’s tied to the people who falsely got out a warrant against Carter Page four times.”
“They don’t want you to know that he’s tied to the group that set up counterintelligence investigation of the Trump campaign in 2016,” he added.
. @LindseyGrahamSC on Hunter Biden’s sketchy business dealings ??
“[Democrats] could care less about getting to the truth, what really did happen, why was the prosecutor fired.” pic.twitter.com/IldGIfsrGB
— GOP (@GOP) November 10, 2019
Graham has called the entire impeachment inquiry a “sham” in the past, and continued in this vein on Sunday, slamming the investigation and suggesting that it’s all a conspiracy. Some of Graham’s fellow lawmakers have echoed his opinion, saying that the Democrats have been holding hearings behind closed doors to avoid scrutiny.
As The Inquisitr previously reported, Graham has taken heat for this stance. One former Republican Representative, David Jolly of Florida, called the Senator “shameless” and called out Republicans for waiting for public support to turn in favor of impeachment before they will express their own support for the process.