Sen. Lindsey Graham clashes with ABC host over Trump indictment
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., clashed with ABC "This Week" host George Stephanopoulos on Sunday over the indictment of former President Donald Trump.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., clashed with ABC's George Stephanopoulos on Sunday during "This Week" over the indictment of former President Trump.
The ABC host asked Graham if he believed the former president's repeated claims that he didn't do anything wrong. Graham said "we live in an America" where a former Democratic candidate for president, Hillary Clinton, could "set up a private server" in her basement to conduct government business.
Stephanopoulos began to interrupt and accused the senator of not answering the question.
"Let me finish!," Graham said. "I'm trying to answer the question from a Republican point of view. That may not be acceptable on this show."
Sen. Lindsey Graham joins George Stephanopoulos for an interview on ABC's "This Week." (Screenshot/ABC/ThisWeek)
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"I don’t like that Mike Pence took classified information. I don’t like any of that. But what I don’t like is a system in America where the secretary of State, who’s a Democratic candidate for president, has people take a hammer to social media devices and break them apart, apply bleach-bit to a hard drive to erase emails. Allowed classified information to get on a felon's computer, Anthony Weiner. Most Republicans believe we live in a country where Hillary Clinton did similar things and nothing happened to her. President Trump will have his day in court. But espionage charges are absolutely ridiculous. Whether you like Trump or not, he did not commit espionage," Graham continued.
Graham said Trump may have done some things wrong, but asserted he was being "overcharged."
"Your old boss committed perjury in a civil lawsuit, lost his law license, obstructed justice in a dozen ways and he didn't get prosecuted," Graham continued, referencing Stephanopoulos' work under Bill Clinton.
Stephanopoulos pushed back and said Hillary Clinton was "fully investigated."
Former President Donald Trump will stand trial on March 25, 2024, in connection with falsifying business records related to a 2016 hush money payment, a New York judge said Tuesday. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
He said that there's audio of Trump "saying he knows this is secret information" and that "he knows he's sharing it with other people."
The ABC host asked Graham, "how is that OK?"
"I am not saying it is OK. I am not saying it is OK to take a hammer to a Blackberry. I think none of this is OK," he said. "You got vice presidents, secretaries of state and presidents handling this stuff, you had Bill Clinton with tapes in his sock drawer. I would like to review the system. But here is the point I am trying to make."
"What’s happening to Manhattan in Donald Trump has never happened to anybody in the history of New York," Graham continued. "I think the espionage charges are completely wrong, and they paint an impression that does not exist. This is not espionage. And I do believe, George, most people on my side of the aisle believe that when it comes to Donald Trump, there are no rules. And you can do the exact same thing or something similar as Democrats and nothing happens to you."
Former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally on April 27, 2023, in Manchester, New Hampshire. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
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Trump was indicted on 37 federal counts, including willful retention of national defense information, conspiracy to obstruct justice and false statements in Special Counsel Jack Smith's investigation into the classified records.
The former president has claimed he did nothing wrong and said he would be pleading not guilty to the charges in court.
"I did absolutely nothing wrong," he told Fox News Digital, citing the Presidential Records Act, saying it "makes me totally innocent."