Sen. Lindsey Graham has implored Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer not to hold an impeachment trial for Donald Trump once he’s exited office because it would “incite further division” and prolong the U.S.’s “healing.”
The New York Post reports that Graham wrote in a letter to Schumer that he should hold a vote to reject the one article of impeachment that the House has charged Trump with for “incitement of an insurrection.” Graham said the Senate's attempt to bar Trump from pursuing office in the future “would be an unconstitutional act of political vengeance, not a righteous constitutional act to protect the Nation by removal of an incumbent president.”
”Such a gratuitous, meaningless effort … is neither worthy of our great institution, nor a service to our great Nation and the American people. It will incite further division,” the South Carolina Republican senator wrote.
If the Senate doesn’t dismiss the article of impeachment and goes forward with a trial, Graham said, “we will be delaying indefinitely, if not forever, the healing of this great Nation if we do otherwise.”
McConnell—who’s on his way out of his role in the Senate—has said that Trump’s trial wouldn’t be able to start until after Joe Biden’s inauguration on Wednesday, since the chamber is in recess until Tuesday. Trump would no longer be president by the time the trial begins.
The House impeached Trump last Wednesday, just a week after Trump insurrectionists breached the U.S. Capitol building while Congress was meeting to certify the Electoral College results for Biden.
Graham also appeared to blame House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for the riot since she controls security at the Capitol. “To see people come and take over the Capitol—the House and the Senate—beat officers, defile the seat of government. How in the hell could that happen? Where was Nancy Pelosi? It’s her job to provide Capitol security,” he said on Fox News. He added, “We’ll get to the bottom of that.”
