Watch–Lindsey Graham: Democrats ‘Selectively Leaking’ to Drive Down Trump’s Poll Numbers

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said during a press conference Wednesday that House Democrats have continued to “selectively leak” information to the media to drive down President Donald Trump’s poll numbers.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Graham and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) released the Graham-McConnell resolution Wednesday, which condemns House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) secretive impeachment inquiry proceedings. The resolution has 44 Senate Republicans backing the resolution.

Sen. Graham said that the Democrats’ current proceedings constitute a “substantial deviation” from previous impeachments, including that of former President Bill Clinton.

The Senate Judiciary Committee chairman said that Democrats’ new impeachment methods are “dangerous for the country” because they break with precedent. Pelosi charged House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA), not House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-NY), with the impeachment investigation. Graham noted that the Judiciary Committee normally investigates the president for a potential impeachment trial, not the Intelligence Committee.

“Instead of the Judiciary [Committee] looking at impeachable offenses, they created a process in the Intel Committee that’s behind closed doors, doesn’t provide the president access to the accuser,” he said.

“At its core un-American,” Graham added.

Sen. Graham said that the Democrats have continued to “selectively leak” information to the media, which sets a dangerous precedent for future presidents, including Democrat presidents.

He said that the “process is dangerous to the future of the presidency, because if you can drive down a president’s poll numbers by having proceedings where you selectively leak information, where the president who’s the subject of all of this, pretty much shut out of it, God help future presidents.”

Graham said that in contrast, they have “41 senators” backing the bill, showing that Republicans are fighting back.

The South Carolina senator then criticized the media’s bias, suggesting that if Republicans deployed the same tactics Democrats have used against Trump for impeachment, “you would beat the shit out of us.”

“I think if we were doing this you would beat the shit out of us,” Graham said. “I think if a Republican were doing to a Democrat what we’re, you would be all over me, and I think it says a lot about people in your business.”

“You would be calling us every kind of bad name and we would deserve it,” Graham added.

Read the Graham-McConnell resolution here.