Graham: Impeachment of Trump Out of Office ‘Unconstitutional’ — Says Speech Doesn’t Fit the Incitement Statute

Monday on FNC’s “Fox News Primetime,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) criticized the merits of the impeachment articles brought against former President Donald Trump for allegations of incitement.

Graham said the impeachment proceedings were unconstitutional and also questioned if Trump’s remarks qualified as a violation of the incitement statute.

“The bottom line is, I believe an impeachment of the president out of office is unconstitutional,” he said. “I don’t believe the speech given by the president fits the incitement statute. That is not a crime. And there’s mounting evidence that the people came to Washington preplanned the attack before the president ever spoke. So I’m confident of the outcome here that we’re going to have more than 45 votes for a motion to dismiss on the idea that this is unconstitutional impeachment pursuing somebody out of office. I think the acquittal number will be pretty close. It will be in the high 40s.”

“But the question is, Trey, how did this trial end?” Graham continued. “If the House managers want to use this as a political commercial against Donald Trump and the Republicans, and they want to call witnesses now they didn’t call during the impeachment process in the House, this thing could go for weeks or months, and that would be bad for the country. So, to my Democratic colleagues, if you vote to call one witness, none were called in the House, get ready for a long trial.”

Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor

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