Over the weekend, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) was one of the GOP lawmakers to voice concerns over President Donald Trump’s increasingly aggressive rhetoric towards Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Asked by CNN’s Jake Tapper if he was worried the president may shut down the Russia probe, the South Carolina lawmaker explained it would be the “beginning of the end” of Trump’s presidency if he did.
Graham expanded on those thoughts this morning during a radio hit with conservative commentator Hugh Hewitt. With Hewitt noting that Graham was one of the House’s impeachment managers in 1998 during the Bill Clinton case, Hewitt wanted to know if the Republican senator believed Trump firing Mueller “would be an impeachable offense.”
“Probably so, if he did it without cause,” Graham responded. “Yeah.”
Hewitt noted that Sen. Angus King (I-ME) — who caucuses with the Democrats — believes a Mueller ouster wouldn’t necessarily be grounds for impeachment. Hewitt asked Graham why he disagrees.
“Well, I think what the president will have done is stopped an investigation in whether or not his campaign colluded with the Russians, what effect the Russians had on the 2016 campaign,” the GOP lawmaker answered. “I can’t see it being anything other than a corrupt purpose.”
Hewitt further pressed Graham on whether he thought a Republican-led House would impeach the president in he did indeed fire Mueller. Graham noted that if Obama would have done the same thing, Republicans would “all have a different view” of it. He added that he couldn’t “think of a more upsetting moment in the rule of law to have an investigator looking at a president’s campaign as to whether or not they colluded with a foreign government” and to have the president stop the “investigation without cause.”
“Have you told him that specifically, Senator Graham, so that he hears it from Republicans, do not fire Bob Mueller?” Hewitt pressed Graham.
“I think I just — I think I just did,” Graham replied, obviously referencing Trump’s consumption of conservative media.
Listen to the clip above, via The Hugh Hewitt Show.
[image via screengrab]
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Follow Justin Baragona on Twitter: @justinbaragona
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