NBC’s Kristen Welker Boxes Lindsey Graham Into an Awkward Defense of Trump’s FBI Pick By Confronting Him With His Own Words

Meet the Press moderator Kristen Welker put Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) in a tight spot Sunday by confronting him with his own past words.

Halfway through her interview with Graham, Welker asked about Kash Patel — the controversial pick by President-elect Donald Trump to lead the FBI. She played a clip of Graham appearing on Meet the Press in May 2017 in which he called for Trump to choose someone who is “beyond reproach” to lead the bureau.

“He has a duty and obligation to pick somebody beyond reproach outside the political lane,” Graham said in 2017. “I think he’ll do that. I hope he’ll do that. I would encourage the president to pick somebody we can all rally around, including those who work in the FBI.”

Coming out of the clip, Welker asked bluntly, “Senator, is Kash Patel beyond reproach and someone that everyone can rally around?”

Graham responded by launching into an awkward defense of Patel — who has published a Deep State enemies list he wants Trump to target, and repeatedly flirted with the QAnon conspiracy theory.

“I think you’re talking about what he should do the last time,” Graham said. “Look what’s happened since the last time: The FBI, in the eyes of conservatives, has become sort of a very biased organization.”

The senator added, “I want an FBI director … that can clean it up, get back to the job of fighting crime. Don’t have your thumb on the political scale. Make sure it’s not used as a political weapon against people that you have a beef with. We don’t want to go back to the days of J. Edgar Hoover. What we want to do is have an FBI that’s going to call balls and strikes, and it’s going to take somebody to clean out the place.”

Watch above, via NBC.