- Title: White House working on messaging team on impeachment -U.S. Senator Graham
- Date: 24th October 2019
- Summary: WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES (OCTOBER 24, 2019) (REUTERS) ***WARNING: CONTAINS PROFANITY*** U.S. SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM WALKING INTO ROOM (SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM, SAYING: "What's happened is that the attempt to open up an inquiry of impeachment against President Trump failed miserably. So they've created a new process that I think is very dangerous for the country. Instead of the judiciary looking at a potential impeachable offense, they've created a process in the intel committee that's behind closed doors, doesn't provide access to the president's accuser, shuts Republicans out for all practical purposes and is a unworthy substitute for the way you need to do it, is at its core un-American." (SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM, SAYING: "I think if we were doing this, you would be beating the shit out of us. I think if a Republican were doing to a Democrat what we're doing, you would be all over me." WHITE FLASH (SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM, SAYING: “These were the rights given to President Clinton, his team and members of the minority. None of this exists today. What's going on is a run-around the impeachment process, creating a secret proceeding behind closed doors that fundamentally is, in my view, denies due process. And when you're talking about removing the President of the United States, seems to me you'd want to have a process that is consistent with who we are as Americans and consistent with what Bill Clinton was allowed to do, Richard Nixon was allowed to do. And the process in the House today, I think, is danger to the future of the presidency. Because if you can drive down a president's poll numbers by having proceedings where you selectively leak information, where the president who's the subject of all of this is pretty much shut out, God help future presidents." WHITE FLASH (SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM, SAYING: "So, I talked to the Chief of Staff Mulvaney. I think they're working on getting a messaging team together. You know, I was involved in impeachment of President Clinton. I know this sounds weird, but Clinton, look what he did. What he did is he had a team that was organized, had legal minds that could understand what was being said versus the legal proceedings in question. And they were on message every day. The President Clinton defended himself, but he never stopped being president." WHITE FLASH (SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM, SAYING: "There is a way to do it. Give President Trump these rights that every other president - Nixon, Clinton - have had and take a vote to allow the House to be on record authorizing this. This is a rogue action by a single committee of the House that has never done impeachment inquiries before. And I think it's dangerous to the presidency." (SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM, SAYING: "There's a plan coming together from the Joint Chiefs that I think may work, that may give us what we need to prevent ISIS from coming back, Iran taking the oil, ISIS from taking the oil. I am somewhat encouraged that a plane is coming about that will meet our core objectives in Syria." GRAHAM LEAVING ROOM
- Embargoed: 7th November 2019 20:42
- Keywords: Graham impeachment Trump Republicans
- Location: WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES
- City: WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES
- Country: USA
- Topics: Lawmaking,Government/Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA001B2GKMRR
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: EDITOR'S NOTE: THERE IS AN INSTANCE OF PROFANE LANGUAGE IN THE SOUND OF SHOT #3
Republican U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham said on Thursday (October 24) that the White House is working on getting a team together to work on messaging on the House of Representatives probe into whether President Donald Trump should be impeached.
"I talked to Chief of Staff Mulvaney. I think they're working on getting a messaging team together," Graham said during a news briefing, referring to White House's acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney.
Graham pointed to the impeachment process of former President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, who "had a team that was organized, that had legal minds that could understand what was being said versus the legal proceedings in question, and they were on message every day.
"President Clinton defended himself but he never stopped being president," Graham said.
During the briefing, Graham also said U.S. military leaders are preparing a plan that could keep Islamic State fighters from regaining a foothold in Syria, while preventing Syrian oil from falling into the hands of Iran or the militant group.
"There's a plan coming together from the Joint Chiefs that I think may work, that may give us what we need to prevent ISIS from coming back, Iran taking the oil, ISIS from taking the oil," Graham told reporters after receiving a briefing from the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the White House.
"I am somewhat encouraged that a plan is coming about that will meet our core objectives in Syria," he said.
(Production: Greg Savoy, Katharine Jackson) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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