Lindsey Graham spars with NBC anchor, says Tulsi Gabbard's Russiagate claims being ‘swept under the rug'
NBC 'Meet the Press' host Kristen Welker asked Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., if he was trying to 'distract from the Epstein matter' during a heated exchange on Sunday over Trump administration allegations that former President Obama may have directed the U.S. intelligence agencies to implicate Trump in the Russiagate scandal.
'You're trying to sweep this stuff under the rug, and that's not right!' Graham said.
The argument erupted over the recent allegations lodged by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.
Gabbard claimed that declassified intelligence documents and a declassified 2020 House Intelligence Committee report revealed that in the waning days of the Obama administration, the then-president ordered U.S. intel agencies to alter their assessment of Russia's attempts to interfere in the election, specifically to help elect Donald Trump.
Advertisement
The DNI director said that the intelligence agencies had originally concluded that Russia was not trying to help Trump get elected. Gabbard alleged that the agencies in fact had evidence that Putin expected Hillary Clinton to win the presidency. Gabbard alleged that this was tantamount to a 'treasonous conspiracy.'
4 NBC 'Meet the Press' host Kristen Welker asked Sen. Lindsey Graham if he was trying to 'distract from the Epstein matter' during a heated exchange on Sunday.
NBC News
'The treasonous conspiracy that we have now released to the American people — the complicity, the deflection, and the silence of politicians, of the mainstream media, and of those directly implicated into this speaks volumes,' Gabbard told Fox & Friends.
President Trump called for Obama and others to face 'very severe consequences' for attempting to 'rig the election.' Obama issued a rare official response to Trump, blasting the claims as 'bizarre' and a 'weak attempt at distraction.'
Advertisement
'The bizarre allegations are ridiculous and a weak attempt at distraction. Nothing in the document issued last week undercuts the widely accepted conclusion that Russia worked to influence the 2016 presidential election but did not successfully manipulate any votes,' he said. 'These findings were affirmed in a 2020 report by the bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee, led by then-Chairman Marco Rubio,' a spokesperson for Obama said.
4 The argument erupted over the recent allegations lodged by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.
NBC News
Welker claimed that she had spoken to Republican former CIA officer Susan Miller, who categorically denied Gabbard's claims.
The NBC anchor also pointed to a Trump-appointed special counsel, John H. Durham, who she claimed concluded in 2023 that there was no political interference in the Russiagate probe.
Advertisement
She also played a clip of Graham himself saying in 2017 that the Russians interfered in the election to embarrass Hillary Clinton.
'There's only one person in Washington that I know of that has any doubt about what Russia did in our election, and that is President Trump,' Graham said at the time.
The South Carolina senator replied that Gabbard's report contained information that hadn't previously been disclosed, and that the allegations warranted a special counsel investigation.
'Well, what I am saying is that you left a lot out here… The Mueller investigation was crooked and rotten to the core. The Washington Post and the New York Times got a Pulitzer Prize for reporting on Trump's campaign's relationship with Russia. It was all B.S.,' Graham said.
Graham said he isn't calling for former President Obama to be prosecuted for treason, but said that a special counsel should look into whether the former president ordered the intelligence report to be changed because he didn't like the outcome.
4 Tulsi Gabbard claimed that declassified intelligence documents and a declassified 2020 House Intelligence Committee report revealed that then-president Obama ordered U.S. intel agencies to alter their assessment of Russia's attempts to interfere in the election, specifically to help elect Donald Trump.
Getty Images
4 Graham said he isn't calling for former President Obama to be prosecuted for treason, but said that a special counsel should look into whether the former president ordered the intelligence report to be changed because he didn't like the outcome.
NBC News
Advertisement
He lamented that so many lives got turned upside down by the Mueller investigation, and accused Welker of trying to sweep the administration's findings 'under the rug.'
'For years and months and days and weeks, people had their lives turned upside down, chasing the Mueller narrative that Trump was in bed with the Russians, that the Trump campaign was colluding with the Russians… You're trying to sweep this stuff under the rug and that's not right,' he said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
8 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Why Keir Starmer is outdoing the EU when it comes to dealing with Donald Trump
As Ursula von der Leyen left Scotland last weekend with the ink still drying on the US/ EU trade deal she had just signed with Trump, the reception in European capitals was beyond gloomy. After all the posturing, threats of counter tariffs, Ms von der Leyen had signed a deal which was roundly criticised by a long line of leaders including German chancellor Friedrich Merz, who said the agreement would "substantially damage" his nation's finances, and French prime minister Francois Bayrou, who described it as tantamount to "submission". Hungary's Viktor Orban, an outspoken critic of the EU leadership, said Trump "ate von der Leyen for breakfast". But there was one question which diplomats and government heads were asking all over Europe: 'How did Keir Starmer get a better deal than us?' Not only is the EU still paying 15 per cent tariffs, but it now has agreed to spend billions purchasing energy resources from the US. This compared to the 10 per cent tariffs for the UK. 'Featherweight' Ursula von der Leyen A seasoned diplomat of an EU member state told The Independent that there was 'anger' about what had happened. The fact that the UK 'appears to be rewarded for Brexit' also really stung. But what was more worrying was that the EU supposed collective muscle had failed to produce the goods. Much of the blame has fallen on Ms von der Leyen herself and she is now being referred to as 'the featherweight'. 'She was just not strong enough to take on Trump,' said the diplomat. 'People are just remembering that she was a weak defence minister in the German government, now she is weak as a negotiator.' An insider at Trump's Turnberry golf resort described how the US president was 'in no hurry' to conclude the talks on Saturday. 'He wanted to spend more time talking to paying guests and getting pictures with them,' The Independent was told. 'He was incredibly gracious to everyone there including the staff.' Respect for Starmer But it was a different story with Sir Keir. The insider noted: 'He spoke very warmly of Starmer. He genuinely likes him. I think he respects Starmer for standing up for himself and being straightforward and honest. Trump does not like a complete sycophant. 'In Keir he sees a decent man which the public in the UK don't seem to see at all.' This seemed to not only touch on trade issues but also the problems in the Middle East. When Emmanuel Macron declared France would recognise a Palestinian state he was savaged by Trump's secretary of state Marco Rubio. When Canadian PM Mark Carney did the same Trump himself said it would threaten their trade deal. But when Starmer did it, Trump effectively greenlit the decision and said he was fine with it. The personal relationship between Starmer and Trump was vital in getting that done. But there was more. One Washington insider close to the White House told The Independent: 'Trump does not want any trouble with the UK until after he had a successful state visit in September.' They predicted: 'The relationship with Starmer will eventually fall apart over censorship – online harms bill, digital services taxes, illegal migration, Palestine, and Labour's capitulation to Islamism.' However, that might not be the case. The key to UK diplomacy with the US is King Charles III and the Prince of Wales, with the US president's reverence of the royal family keeping the show on the road. One source said: 'The King and Trump are actually very close.' Meanwhile he 'has spoken a lot' to Prince William, who he met at the reopening of Notre Dame cathedral in Paris. Mandelson works the room Added to that though has been the work of Lord Mandelson as the UK's ambassador in Washington DC. Having almost had his credentials rejected over links to China, Mandelson has been 'working hard to meet everyone and build relations'. 'He is one of the big reasons the UK did well out of the trade deal,' a source said. He is also been central to ensuring that the state visit in September by Trump is 'a big success'. One DC insider said: 'Currently Lord Mandelson is probably the most effective ambassador in Washington at the moment. He seems to know everybody.' Sir Keir will be hoping that this will all prove to be enough to maintain the preferential treatment he seems to be enjoying as a world leader with the US at the moment.
CBS News
10 minutes ago
- CBS News
Massachusetts AFL-CIO leader criticizes both Democrats and Republicans for not helping working class
The 2024 presidential election showed neither the Republicans nor the Democrats are "really working for the working class in a way [they] should be," said Massachusetts AFL-CIO President Chrissy Lynch. "I think a lot of union members saw, and a lot of working class people in general saw, one party defending a status quo that hasn't been working for them and one party wanted to blow up the status quo, and it's not a good place for, I think, our democracy to be in," Lynch said in an interview on the Sunday edition of "Keller At Large on WBZ-TV. "I still think that our endorsement of Kamala Harris was the right one…Look, the platform of what Kamala Harris stood for versus what Donald Trump and Project 2025 stood for is a very stark difference," she said. Lynch accused the Trump administration of "chipping away at worker's rights," and "taking a sledgehammer to all of the things that are bedrock to our country." But she also offered qualified praise for the president's reshaping of U.S. trade policy. "I think he tapped into something, which is people want stuff made and bought in America. I think the free trade policies of the 90s, which both parties supported without labor standards, are feeding into what we have now, which is people want stuff made in America. I think his sledgehammer approach to tariffs is misguided, but I do think we should be figuring out how to make more things in America." Lynch defended the proliferation of strikes in the Greater Boston area over the past year, including actions by sanitation workers, food service workers at Fenway Park, and several illegal teacher strikes. "Working people across the board are feeling fed up with an economy that doesn't work for them," she said. "I really applaud that they are not afraid to stand up to these corporate giants and fight for what is right." Lynch also discussed the impact AI and automation are having on labor and expressed support for a potential statewide ballot question to legalize teacher strikes being considered by the Massachusetts Teachers Association. You can watch the entire interview in the video above. Keller at Large airs every Sunday at 8:30 a.m. on WBZ.
10 minutes ago
Larry Summers says Trump's accusations of manipulated jobs numbers are ‘preposterous'
Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers called President Donald Trump's accusation without evidence that the top Bureau of Labor Statistics official manipulated jobs report numbers "a preposterous charge" on Sunday. Speaking with "This Week" anchor George Stephanopoulos, Summers cast doubt that one official would be able to change the numbers. "These numbers are put together by teams of literally hundreds of people following detailed procedures that are in manuals. There's no conceivable way that the head of the BLS could have manipulated this number," Summers said. Trump blasted Erika McEntarfer, the commissioner of Labor Statistics, after the release of some disappointing jobs numbers on Friday and the revision downward of previous reports and said he had fired her for manipulating the figures for political purposes. "This is the same Bureau of Labor Statistics that overstated the Jobs Growth in March 2024 by approximately 818,000 and, then again, right before the 2024 Presidential Election, in August and September, by 112,000. These were Records -- No one can be that wrong? We need accurate Jobs Numbers," Trump posted to his social media platform. Stephanopoulos asked Summers, "I guess this firing of the BLS commissioner goes in the category of shocking but not surprising?" "This is way beyond anything Richard Nixon ever did," Summers said of Trump's firing McEntarfer. "I'm surprised that other officials have not responded by resigning themselves, as took place when Richard Nixon fired people lawlessly."
