USA TODAY International Edition
Graham: Don’t pardon the insurrectionists
Senator says pardons would ‘ destroy’ Trump
WASHINGTON – Sen. Lindsey Graham, who recently criticized President Donald Trump over his demands to overturn the November election results, expressed more support for Trump on Sunday – though he did warn the president not to pardon insurrectionists who stormed the U. S. Capitol on Jan. 6.
“To seek a pardon of these people would be wrong ... I think it would destroy President Trump, and I hope we don’t go down that road,” Graham said on the Fox News program “Sunday Morning Futures.”
Overall, the Republican from South Carolina was more positive when he was asked if he had a message for Trump.
“Mr. President, your policies will stand the test of time,” he said on the Fox program that Trump is known to watch.
“You’re the most important figure in the Republican Party. You can shape the direction of the party, keep your movement alive.”
Trump and Graham have had a notoriously volatile relationship.
During the 2016 Republican primaries, defeated candidate Graham warned that the party would be “destroyed” if it nominated Trump for the presidency.
After Trump became president, however, Graham became one of his most outspoken congressional supporters.
This month, Graham rejected Trump’s pressure and voted to count Joe Biden’s electoral votes and seal his victory as president- elect. Graham also denounced the attack by the president’s supporters on the Capitol, a riot that killed at least five people.
“All I can say, is count me out, enough is enough,” Graham said after the riot.
Less than a week later, Graham accompanied Trump on a trip to South Texas for a speech on immigration.
In November, a Georgia elections official accused Graham of pressuring him to find ways to invalidate some Biden votes; Graham denied the allegation, calling it “ridiculous.”
The U. S. House voted last week to impeach Trump on charges of inciting the insurrection. Ten House Republicans voted in favor of impeachment, but Graham criticized the action.
The Senate is expected to hold an impeachment trial of Trump later this year, though Graham said he would fight it.
On Sunday, Graham released a letter to incoming Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer, D- N. Y., asking him to schedule a Senate vote to dismiss the impeachment case. Holding a trial of the ex- president, he said, would delay “the healing of this great Nation.”
Schumer is not expected to grant the request, and political analysts mocked Graham.
“You don’t get to whine about ‘ healing’ now after you personally inflicted so many of the wounds,” tweeted historian Kevin Kruse.