Lindsey Graham Warns Democrats They’ll ‘Open Pandora’s Box’ If They Call Even One Witness For Impeachment Trial Against Former President Trump
Senator Lindsey Graham issued a dire warning to Democrats continuing to push the impeachment against former President Donald Trump saying they will be opening up “Pandora’s box” if they decide to call even one witness to the upcoming trial in the Senate.
The Republican lawmaker from South Carolina, who is also outgoing chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he is looking forward to a swift acquittal of the former President — but it could go the other way if Democrats insist on pursuing the impeachment which he said would be just another “political commercial.”
The Democrat-controlled House voted last month to impeach the former President for the second time, charging him of allegedly “encourag[ing] … imminent lawless action at the Capitol” after chaos broke in Capitol Hill on January 6, the same day that lawmakers met in a Joint Session to confirm the Electoral College votes for now President Joe Biden.
Without conducting an investigation or calling witnesses back then, House Democrats concluded that former President Trump’s posts on social media were behind the violence at the US Capitol.
Lindsey Graham repeats his warning not to call witnesses during the trial. He says if Democrats vote to call a single witness, “we’ll want the FBI to come in” pic.twitter.com/FqtDfUBWdL
— Acyn (@Acyn) February 2, 2021
Senator Graham said Republicans are ready to play ball should Democrats opt to make the impeachment into another “political commercial” — which he said could drag the trial for “weeks and months” should they decide to call on witnesses.
He said Republicans will also call the FBI to testify about the security failures that led to the chaos.
“If you open up that can of worms [by calling witnesses], we’ll want the FBI to come in and tell us about how people actually pre-planned these attacks and what happened with the security footprint at the Capitol,” the South Carolina senator warned.
“You open up Pandora’s box if you call one witness,” he continued, noting that instead, the Senate should quickly dismiss the impeachment.
“I hope we don’t call any [witness] and we vote and get this trial over next week when it starts,” Graham added.
With the Senate trial expected to start on February 9, Reuters reported that Democrats in charge of the impeachment will announce whether to call on witnesses or not by Tuesday.
Democrats, however, are expected to face an uphill climb towards convicting the former President with already 45 Republican senators earlier voting to dismiss the impeachment proceedings last week, in a procedural vote led by Sen. Rand Paul — who already called the impeachment “dead on arrival.”
Senator Paul argued that the Senate does not have the constitutional authority to hold a trial after the former Republican President has left office.
Sen. @RandPaul submits Point of Order saying trial is unconstitutional. @SenSchumer: "The senate has the power to try former officials."
Full video here: https://t.co/4i3G466kXQ pic.twitter.com/gmg6ye74zj
— CSPAN (@cspan) January 26, 2021
Democrats would need at least 17 Republican senators to flip to their side to have the two-thirds vote required to convict the former President and charge him guilty.
Meanwhile, President Trump’s legal team said the impeachment article is in violation of the Constitution and called on the Senate to acquit the former president. They argued that he didn’t violate his oath of office and is protected by the First Amendment in response to charges that he incited an insurrection.
“It is denied that the 45th President of the United States ever engaged in a violation of his oath of office,” the Trump team said. “To the contrary, at all times, Donald J. Trump fully and faithfully executed his duties as President of the United States, and at all times acted to the best of his ability to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, while never engaging in any high Crimes or Misdemeanors.”
The former president’s legal team also said a Senate trial would be “unconstitutional.”
“Donald John Trump, 45th President of the United States, respectfully requests the Honorable Members of the Senate of the United States dismiss Article I: Incitement of Insurrection against him as moot, and thus in violation of the Constitution, because the Senate lacks jurisdiction to remove from office a man who does not hold office,” the brief from Trump’s team said.
Read the Trump legal team’s full response to the impeachment here.
A vote to impeach the former President could be used by his opponents as an opportunity to bar him from ever being allowed to seek public office in the future.
