- Senator Lindsey Graham said on Sunday that Trump will be remembered for the Capitol riot.
- “January 6 was a very bad day for America and he will have his share of guilt in history,” said Graham.
- The Capitol riot on January 6 left at least five people, including a police officer, dead.
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Senator Lindsey Graham, one of Donald Trump’s staunchest allies, said on Sunday that the Capitol rebellion will be a defining part of the former president’s legacy.
Trump “is the most popular figure in the Republican Party” and “has had a consistent presidency,” Graham, a South Carolina Republican, said in CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday. “January 6 was a very bad day for America and he will have his share of guilt in history.”
—Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) February 7, 2021
The Capitol riot on January 6 left at least five people, including a police officer, dead. Members of the Proud Boys, which is classified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, would have been present.
Organizers were encouraged by Trump’s calls to protest the results of the 2020 elections with him, despite Democrat Joe Biden’s victory. While members of Congress gathered on the day of the Capitol building to certify the results, supporters organized a coup attempt and entered the Capitol building.
Lawmakers were forced to remain locked up while rebels invaded the building.
Graham’s comments come as Trump’s legal team prepares to give a defense of the former president during his second impeachment trial, which begins this week in the Senate.
In January, 10 House Republicans voted in favor of a charge of inciting insurrection. Senate Republicans, on the other hand, are uniting against the charge, calling it unconstitutional.
Graham is one of those Republicans.
“The bottom line is that the impeachment articles, I think, are unconstitutional because the president is in Florida,” Graham told CBS. “He is not in office. The impeachment of a president requires the president of the court to preside over the trial. He is not in the trial because President Trump is not the president. So this is not a process.”
Graham went on to say that he thinks the Constitution “is being flagrantly violated because, when it comes to Trump, there seems to be no end to all of this. So the trial will result in an acquittal.”
Still, Graham suggested that Trump is at least partly to blame for the Capitol riot last month, saying he “will have a place in history” for that.
These comments mark at least the second time Graham has blamed part of the blame for inciting the Capitol rebellion on Trump. The first time came the day after the riot, when Graham publicly rebuked Trump.
“When it comes to accountability, the president needs to understand that his actions were the problem, not the solution,” Graham told a news conference. The president’s legacy has been “tarnished,” Graham added.
“It breaks my heart that my friend, an important president, has allowed yesterday to happen and that will be an important part of his presidency,” he said. “It was a self-inflicted wound.”