Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina and a close ally of former President Donald Trump, threatened on Sunday that Vice President Kamala Harris would face impeachment if Republicans retake the House of Representatives in the mid-term elections of 2022.
The Republican Party legislator – along with a few other Republicans – has repeatedly compared Harris’ decision to support the rescue of Black Lives Matter protesters who were arrested last spring for Trump’s actions before the January 6 uprising against the US Capitol . After the Senate vote to absolve Trump on Saturday, Graham again reiterated that comparison – arguing that Harris was guilty of inciting violence, just as House Democrats and 10 House Republicans alleged of the ex-president when voting to challenge him in the last month.
Speaking for Fox News SundayGraham again aimed at Harris, warning that she could face impeachment in the future.
“If you use this model, I don’t know how Kamala Harris doesn’t get impeached if Republicans take over the House, because it really saved the hooligans and one of the hooligans returned to the streets and broke someone’s head,” said the South Carolina Republican “So, we opened Pandora’s box here and I’m sad for the country.”
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Before the Senate impeachment trial, Graham criticized the lawsuit as unconstitutional due to Trump no longer serving in the White House. He also argued that Trump’s statements at the January 6 rally before the riot were protected as freedom of speech under the First Amendment to the Constitution. In an interview in early February for Fox News, Graham made the same comparison to Harris, and his decision to promote the rescue of Black Lives Matter protesters.
“What more could you do to incite violence in the future than to bail people who broke into stores and beat up police,” Graham said in the previous interview.
“How is this not inciting violence in the future? Be careful what you wish for my Democratic colleagues, be careful what you want.”
Graham’s statement about Harris is exaggerated. The vice president, who at the time was a California senator and has not yet been chosen as a running mate for President Joe Biden, tweeted a link to a Minnesota Freedom Fund fundraiser on June 1. Harris asked his followers to “contribute” to “help pay bail for those protesting in Minnesota” following the death of George Floyd, a black man unarmed by the police, in Minneapolis on May 25, 2020.
During his Sunday interview, Graham also targeted Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, who strongly rebuked Trump on Saturday after the Senate acquitted the former president. Although McConnell voted with most Republicans to acquit Trump, he said in a plenary speech after the vote that it was because Trump was no longer in office and not a judgment on the merits of impeachment managers’ arguments of the Chamber.
“I think Senator McConnell’s speech took a weight off his chest, obviously, but unfortunately he put a weight on Republicans’ backs,” Graham said. “You will see this speech in the 2022 campaigns.”
Seven Republican senators voted with all 50 members of the Senate’s Democratic Caucus to condemn Trump on Saturday. With the final vote reaching 57 to 43, it marked the most bipartisan Senate impeachment vote in the history of the United States. However, this was not enough to reach the high constitutional limit of a two-thirds majority – which would have required at least 10 more Republicans to attack the former president.
Republican Party senators who supported Trump’s sentencing included Susan Collins of Maine, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, Mitt Romney of Utah, Richard Burr of North Carolina, Ben Sasse of Nebraska and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.
Newsweek contacted the White House to comment on Graham’s warning about Harris, but did not receive an immediate response.