Nadler Plays Brutal Video at Senate Trial of Lindsey Graham Arguing There Doesn’t Need to Be a Crime to Impeach

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) reportedly ducked out of President Donald Trump’s Senate trial just in time to avoid watching Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) turn his old impeachment views back at him.

As Nadler spoke on the third day of Trump’s impeachment trial, he played a clip of Graham speaking about impeachment during Bill Clinton’s trial in 1999 in a way that might haunt him today.

“What’s a high crime? How about if an important person hurts somebody of low means,” said Graham at the time. “It’s not very scholarly, but I think it’s the truth. I think that’s what [the framers] meant by high crimes. It doesn’t even have to be a crime. It’s just when you start using your office and you’re acting in a way that hurts people, you’ve committed a high crime.”

Graham staunchly opposes the push by House Democrats to remove Trump from office, but the senator has drawn scrutiny for the fact that his previous statements appear diametrically opposed to his current position on impeachable offenses. While it might have been awkward for Graham to see his own words turned against him, it seems he wasn’t there for it, since multiple reporters have said he left before it happened.

Graham left the Senate floor minutes before Nadler started playing the video of him. Barrasso, who sits next to Graham, patted his empty chair as the video began to play

— Catie Edmondson (@CatieEdmondson) January 23, 2020

Lindsey Graham walked out of the chamber moments before Nadler played a clip of him just now

— Igor Bobic (@igorbobic) January 23, 2020

When Dems played the old clip of Graham on the big screen, Graham was actually not in the room.

He had actually left about 5 minutes beforehand.

Possibly because each senator had a copy of Nadler’s Powerpoint, including pics of each slide in order.

— Sarah Ferris (@sarahnferris) January 23, 2020

Catie Edmondson of The New York Times further reported that “Senator John Barrasso, Republican of Wyoming, who sits next to Mr. Graham on the Senate floor, briefly patted the South Carolina Republican’s empty seat as the video began to play.”

Watch above, via CBS.

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