Tag: Lindsey Graham

Graham moves controversial asylum bill through panel; Democrats charge he’s broken the rules

The Hill logoThe Senate Judiciary Committee advanced a bill to overhaul U.S. asylum laws on Thursday, waiving committee rules to force the legislation through over objections from Democrats.
The Judiciary Committee voted 12-10 to send the bill, spearheaded by committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), to the full Senate, where it’s not expected to get the 60 votes needed to ultimately pass. 
The decision by Graham to force his bill through the committee sparked outrage from Democrats on the panel, who accused him of busting up the rules on how legislation gets taken up in order to push through a partisan bill.

View the complete August 1 article by Jordain Carney on The Hill website here.

Graham threat to bust panel rules roils Senate tensions

The Hill logoTensions are boiling over in the Senate over Sen. Lindsey Graham’s (R-S.C.) threat to ram through legislation to overhaul U.S. asylum laws, including changing the number of days minors crossing the border can be held in custody. 

The fight is the latest high-profile battle on the Senate Judiciary Committee, where Graham says he’s ready to waive panel rules to force a committee vote Thursday on his legislation.

Graham’s bill touches on the detentions of families who cross the border, as well as their possible separations, one of the most sensitive issues in politics right now.

View the complete August 1 article by Jordain Carney on The Hill website here.

Morning Joe panel brutally dismantles Lindsey Graham for doubling down and backing Trump’s extreme racism

MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough was left speechless by Sen. Lindsey Graham’s impassioned defense of President Donald Trump’s racist attacks on four Democratic congresswomen.

The “Morning Joe” host sat in stunned silence after rolling video of the South Carolina Republican defending Trump’s tweets, and doubling down by hurling his own slurs against the first-year lawmakers.

“You call Americans in Congress communists?” Scarborough said, after gathering his thoughts, “and you say they hate America? And then your punch line to that is aim higher?”

View the complete July 16 article by Travis Gettys on the Raw Story website here.

9/11 first responders slam Mitch McConnell and Lindsey Graham for failing to renew compensation fund: ‘We’re just not going to take your crap’

Two 9/11 first responders lambasted Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina for failing to renew a compensation fund for 9/11 victims during a CNN appearance on Wednesday.

Interviewed by CNN’s John Berman for “New Day,” John Feal and Brian McGuire — both of whom were first responders at the World Trade Center in New York City following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks — asserted that neither McConnell nor Graham is doing enough to help 9/11 first responders receive the health care they need.

Feal, founder of the FeelGood Foundation, praised comedian Jon Stewart for his efforts on behalf of 9/11 first responders. And Feal noted that he has attended countless funerals since 9/11, saying, “I’ve been to over 180 of these funerals. This is painful. This is sad. And I’m tired of listening to excuses.”

View the complete June 12 article by Alex Henderson on the AlterNet website here.

Graham: Trump officials not adequately briefing on Iran threat

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) says he and other lawmakers haven’t been adequately briefed by the Trump administration about the growing threat posed by Iran amid growing tensions between Washington and Tehran.

Graham, the chairman of the State and Foreign Operations Appropriations Subcommittee and a top ally of President Trump‘s, said senators have been largely kept in the dark as the U.S. sends an aircraft carrier strike group and bombers to the Middle East.

“No, I feel we haven’t been well informed and I’m writing a letter with Sen. Leahy today to try to get a briefing,” Graham said Wednesday afternoon, referring to Sen. Patrick Leahy (Vt.), the ranking Democrat on the State and Foreign Operations Subcommittee.

View the complete May 15 article by Alexander Bolton on The Hill website here.

Graham Urges Appointment Of Special Counsel To ‘Look At’ Clinton, Comey

South Carolina Republican Lindsey Graham, one of Trump’s most vociferous defenders in the Senate, has declared that he will use his power as chair of the Judiciary Committee to pursue his greatest obsession: Hillary Clinton’s emails. But that’s not enough for the senator. He wants Trump’s attorney general, William Barr, to join in his obsession.

“I know Bill Barr pretty well, and he’s pretty upset about the way all this was handled,” Graham said in a Sunday interview on Fox News. “I don’t know if he’s going to have a special prosecutor to look at the probability of criminal misbehavior.”

Graham’s “evidence” of suspicious behavior is that “nobody in the Clinton investigation went to jail for lying about the process because there was no process.” That doesn’t suggest to Graham that Clinton and her campaign were innocent, as the exhaustive investigations of her concluded.

View the complete April 1 article by Kaili Joy Gray on the National Memo website here.

Graham sums up how stupid the GOP has become

Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) once said President Trump was unfit for office. Now Graham can’t stop praising Trump. (JM Rieger/The Washington Post)

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) in a number of ways epitomizes the Republican Party’s descent into intellectual rot and immoral opportunism. Graham as a candidate called out President Trump as a bigot and “the most flawed nominee in the history of the Republican Party.”

As one of the late Sen. John McCain’s closest friends, Graham decried autocrats, stood up for human rights and castigated President Barack Obama for failing to exercise global leadership. He considered himself a defender of the military and our national intelligence community.

He’s now among the worst apologists for Trump — vowing to investigate unsubstantiated smears of the Justice Department and FBI and insisting there was no collusion between the Trump team and the Russians (despite evidence of Paul Manafort’s meeting with Konstantin Kilimnik, the Trump Tower June 2016 meeting and the Roger Stone-WikiLeaks connection.)

View the February 20 commentary by Jennifer Rubin on The Washington Post website here.

Senators trash Lindsey Graham for wanting to investigate Hillary emails more

Credit: Alex Wong, Getty Images

Instead of investigating Trump crime and corruption, Lindsey Graham will attack Hillary Clinton.

Trump ally and golf buddy Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) is being mocked for his plans to use the Senate Judiciary Committee to settle old scores and abuse his power by investigating Hillary Clinton.

Graham only recently became the chairman of the committee. And rather than investigate the wide array of scandals that have surfaced involving Trump, Trump’s henchman, the Trump family, and other Republicans, Graham said he wants to investigate Clinton’s email server and the decisions that led the FBI to investigate Trump campaign aides like Carter Page.

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) laughed about Graham’s plot, saying Graham was trying to relive the “thrilling days of yesteryear.”

View the complete January 22 article by Oliver Willis on the ShareBlue website here.

Graham angers Dems by digging into Clinton, Obama controversies

New tensions are flaring on the Senate Judiciary Committee over plans by newly minted Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) to dig into Obama-era scandals.

Graham, a close ally of President Trump’s, has outlined several areas he wants to probe now that he has the Judiciary Committee gavel.

They include the FBI’s handling of its investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant applications targeting former Trump campaign aide Carter Page.

View the complete January 21 article by Jordain Carney on The Hill website here.

Lindsey Graham Awkwardly Tries To Walk Back Vow To Unleash ‘Holy Hell’ On Trump HuffPost

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) is attempting to explain his reversal on a 2017 threat that there would be “holy hell to pay” if President Donald Trump fired Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

Although Sessions got the boot this week, Graham vowed instead to work with Trump “to find a confirmable, worthy successor.”

When confronted with his previous comments on Thursday, Graham chuckled.

View the complete November 9 article by Ed Mazza on the Huffington Post website on the Yahoo News website here.