(WATCH) Lindsey Graham Erupts, Angrily Storms Out Of Hearing After Questioning Biden’s SCOTUS Nominee On Her Defense Of Guantanamo Bay Prisoners (VIDEO)
During Tuesday’s hearing for Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson, Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) went off on Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL), and stormed out of the room.
Graham, who had just ended his questions for Judge Jackson, began arguing with Durbin, the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, when he began to address some of the issues Graham raised.
The discussion began with Jackson’s remarks on her own background as a public defender, which included representing inmates at Guantanamo Bay, and she claimed that she was merely “standing up for the constitutional value of representation.”
After Graham finished his inquiries, Durbin stepped in, pointing out that there were 39 detainees still at Guantanamo Bay, and that keeping just one of them there cost the US $12-13 million per year, totaling $540 million per year.
He went on to say that holding the inmates in a federal super-max facility in Colorado would be more cost-effective — and that the recidivism rate for those who were finally released had been 5% since 2009 — but Graham cut him off.
“Mr. Chairman, according to the Director of National Intelligence it’s 31%. Somebody is wrong here,” Graham retorted. “If you want to talk about what I’ve said I’ll respond to what you said. If we close Gitmo and move them to Colorado do you support indefinite detention?”
Durbin responded, “I’m giving the facts.”
Graham emphasized, “The answer is no.”
“I just want to make sure it’s clear that 31% you referred to goes back to the year 2009,” Durbin insisted.
“What does it matter what it goes back to? We had them, and they got loose and they started killing people,” Graham answered. “If you are one of the people killed in 2005, does it matter to you when we released them?”
“I suggest the president of your own party released them, and —” regardless of the fact that four of the five Taliban members freed by Democratic President Barack Obama in exchange for US Army deserter Bowe Bergdahl are now working in the Taliban-controlled Afghan government.
“I’m suggesting the system has failed miserably and advocates to change the system like she was advocating would destroy our ability to protect this country. We’re at war, we’re not fighting a crime. This is not some passage of time event,” Graham added.
“As long as they are dangerous, I hope they all die in jail if they’re going to go back to kill Americans. It won’t bother me one bit if 39 of them die in prison, that’s a better outcome than letting them go. And if it costs $500 million to keep them in jail, keep them in jail, because they’re going to go back to the fight. Look at the frickin’ Afghan government, it’s made up of former detainees at Gitmo. This whole thing by the left about this war ain’t working.”
Graham then angrily stood up and left out as Durbin continued to defend the release of the Guanatanmo detainees.
Watch the interaction below:
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