Lindsey Graham Hit With Embarrassing Epstein Fact-Check on Live TV
Speaking with NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday, Senator Lindsey Graham tripped up a supposedly 'new' development in the Russian collusion investigation, suggesting that more evidence had emerged tying former President Barack Obama to the nearly 10-year-old national security scandal.
Amid rising intraparty tensions over Trump's apparent ties to pedophilic sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, the president wildly suggested last week that Obama had interfered with the results of the Trump-Russia investigation, claiming that it was actually Hillary Clinton who received aid from the foreign power. But Graham carried the torch over the weekend, reiterating the president's theory on air while claiming that National Security Director Tulsi Gabbard recently found that Obama had forced investigators to 'keep looking' after initial findings had pointed to no collusion.
'I think somebody needs to look at what we found,' Graham said. 'So what we're looking at is what role did Obama play in 2016 that changed the narrative that resulted in 2017? I'm not alleging he committed treason, but I am saying that it bothers me, it's disturbing.'
But then host Kristen Welker played back a montage of Graham's previous comments, proving that Graham originally agreed with the findings of the intelligence community—long before Trump tried to opportunistically rewrite history.
'Senator, are you now saying that you don't believe Russia tried to interfere in the 2016 election?' Welker pressed.
Apparently getting frustrated, Graham again stressed that new evidence had emerged that changed his opinion.
'Hold on, Senator, as you know, former President Obama has weighed in through a spokesperson,' Welker interrupted. 'He says that's just patently false. I actually spoke to Susan Miller, who's a former senior CIA officer who helped oversee the 2017 intelligence assessment on Russian interference. She says it's completely false that Obama or anyone else asked them to change or sway their investigation. She says, and she's a Republican, that they all would have quit if that happened.'
And then Welker asked the million-dollar question: 'Senator, are you trying to rewrite history to distract from the Epstein matter, Senator?'
'I'm trying to let you know, and the media know, that we found something we didn't know before,' Graham insisted, continuing to defend Trump. 'At the end of the day, I'm not calling for a prosecution against President Obama for treason, but I am calling for an investigation.
'The only people colluding with the Russians were the Hillary Clinton campaign,' Graham continued.
But Welker wasn't having it.
'Senator, you're saying there's something new,' Welker replied. 'This report goes back to 2020. It's five years old. There's actually nothing new in this report and nothing that changes any conclusion.'
'Whatever,' Graham responded.
The Mueller report was published in 2019. The 22-month investigation found that Russia did interfere with the 2016 election, but did not find sufficient evidence to prove that the 2016 Trump campaign had coordinated with Russia to undermine the election results. The report did not take a clear stance on whether Trump had obstructed justice.
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