Lindsey Graham Gives Full-Throated Condemnation of Trump Impeachment: ‘I Have Nothing But Disdain for This’

Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) used his interview with Face The Nation to thoroughly denounce the push to impeach President Donald Trump ahead of the senate’s trial.

CBS’ Margaret Brennan spoke to Graham on Sunday, and she started by asking him “should Republicans in the Senate really be taking their marching orders from the person being investigated?” Graham recently said he “will do everything I can to make [impeachment] die quickly” in the Senate, and he followed up by saying “I have clearly made up my mind.”

“I’m not trying the hide the fact that I have disdain for the accusations and the process, so I don’t need any witnesses,” Graham said. “The president can make a request to call witnesses…I’m ready to vote on the underlying articles. I don’t really need to hear a lot of witnesses.”

Graham continued to say it wouldn’t be good for the country if Vice President Mike Pence or Secretary of State Mike Pompeo were compelled to testify about their connections to the Ukraine scandal. Brennan eventually challenged Graham by invoking his support for Bill Clinton’s impeachment, asking “why have your standards for a Senate trial changed.”

Graham responded by lauding Ken Starr’s Clinton investigation while ripping on how the Trump impeachment process was carried out and “driven by partisan politicians.”

“I want to end it. I have nothing but disdain for this. I’m trying to make myself clear. What you’re doing in the House is bad for the presidency. You’re impeaching the president of the United States in a matter of weeks, not months…I think this whole thing is a crock. You’re shutting the president out. The process in the House, any partisan group could do this in the future. You’re weaponizing impeachment, and I want to end it. I don’t want to legitimize it. I hate what they’re doing.”

Watch above, via CBS.