Sen. Lindsey Graham claimed that he was doing his job when he pressured Georgia election officials to overturn the 2020 results, and he said on Friday that he would do it again.
Graham told reporters, “I called around different states, including Georgia, as a sitting United States senator, chairman of the judiciary committee. I eventually certified the election in all states including Georgia. I didn’t find any evidence of mass voter fraud, but I did have concerns about the mail-in ballot systems in Georgia and other places. This is troubling for the country. We can’t criminalize senators doing their job when they have a constitutional requirement to fulfill. It would be irresponsible for me in my opinion, as chairman of the committee, not to try to find out what happened.”
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It was the second part of Graham’s comments, not in the video above, that were troubling:
GRAHAM: “But one thing I want people to know, I am standing with President Trump. I am proudly supporting him. He can be a handful at times but I thought he was a good president. And I’m not gonna be deterred campaigning for him and working with him.”
— Frank Thorp V (@frankthorp) September 8, 2023
Here is what Graham reportedly did, and it was a lot more than doing his job as a sitting senator:
In their conversation, Graham questioned Raffensperger about the state’s signature-matching law and whether political bias could have prompted poll workers to accept ballots with nonmatching signatures, according to Raffensperger. Graham also asked whether Raffensperger had the power to toss all mail ballots in counties found to have higher rates of nonmatching signatures, Raffensperger said.
Raffspenger said he was stunned that Graham appeared to suggest that he find a way to toss legally cast ballots. Absent court intervention, Raffensperger doesn’t have the power to do what Graham suggested, as counties administer elections in Georgia.
Sen. Graham was likely not indicted in Georgia because prosecutors didn’t have enough evidence to prove that Graham wasn’t acting in his official capacity as a US senator, and a protected legal fight with Graham over whether he was acting as a member of the Trump campaign or a senator would be costly, time-consuming, and could delay the legal process.
America has been warned. Trump and his co-conspirators tried to overthrow the election in 2020, and Lindsey Graham seemed to be suggesting that they will do it again in 2024.