Sen. Lindsey Graham on impeachment delay: Nancy Pelosi has buyer's remorse
Democrats are denying President Trump his day in court because 'they know their case sucks,' says South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
President Trump is "mad as hell" about the impeachment vote by House Democrats, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said Thursday on "Special Report," calling out House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for delaying sending the articles of impeachment to the Senate.
"He's mad as hell that they would do this to him and now deny him his day in court. The reason they're denying him his day in court is they know their case sucks," Graham emphatically stated.
Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., incredulously returned to the Senate floor late Thursday to declare that the Senate and House Democrats were at an "impasse" over whether the House would transmit its articles of impeachment against President Trump to the GOP-controlled Senate for a constitutionally mandated trial.
McConnell, speaking after a meeting with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said the top Democrat had insisted on "departing from the unanimous bipartisan precedent that 100 senators approved before the beginning of President [Bill] Clinton's trial" concerning logistics.
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Schumer had requested a "special pre-trial guarantee of certain witnesses whom the House Democrats, themselves, did not bother to pursue as they assemble their case," McConnell said. He noted that in 1999, "all 100 senators endorsed a common-sense solution" to divide the process into two stages: one laying the groundwork for rules on matters such as opening statements, with another handling "mid-trial questions such as witnesses."
"Some House Democrats imply they are withholding the [impeachment] articles for some kind of leverage," McConnell said. "I admit, I'm not sure what leverage there is in refraining from sending us something we do not want. Alas, if they can figure that out, they can explain."
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Graham, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, was speaking to host Bret Baier from outside the White House, where he had just met with Trump.
"Every American accused of a crime or wrongdoing gets their day in court, apparently, except Donald Trump. And if you believe the Clinton impeachment trial was fair, that's exactly the same time type trial that will happen in the Senate with President Trump," Graham noted.
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Graham said if Pelosi does send over the articles of impeachment in early January, he does not believe witnesses will be called because he believes most senators "are ready to get this over with."
"This whole thing is a sham. I want it to end, but we will listen to the House's case. The president will be allowed to weigh in and then we're gonna vote. The one thing I'm not gonna do is ... support a motion to dismiss. I want this president to be acquitted. I think he will get every Republican's vote for acquittal, and I think he'll pick up some Democratic votes for acquittal," Graham predicted.
Fox News' Gregg Re contributed to this report.