COLUMBIA, S.C. — President Donald Trump is facing a second impeachment -- this time for inciting an insurrection at the US Capitol on January 6. That event saw Trump supporters crash barricades and enter the Capitol Building, taking it over for three hours, and lead to the deaths of five people, including two members of the Capitol Police Force.
U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina), a friend and sometime critic of President Donald Trump released this statement Wednesday, Jan. 13, on the latest developments in efforts to impeach the president.
“Supporting the impeachment of President Trump under these circumstances will do great damage to the institutions of government and could invite further violence at a time the President is calling for calm. If there was a time for America’s political leaders to bend a knee and ask for God’s counsel and guidance, it is now. The most important thing for leaders to do in times of crisis is to make things better, not worse.
“The process being used in the House to impeach President Trump is an affront to any concept of due process and will further divide the country. The President, who will be leaving office in less than a week, has committed to an orderly transfer of power, encouraging calm and rejecting violence.
“The House impeachment process seeks to legitimize a snap impeachment totally void of due process. No hearings. No witnesses. It is a rushed process that, over time, will become a threat to future presidents. As to Senate leadership, I fear they are making the problem worse, not better.
“The last thing the country needs is an impeachment trial of a president who is leaving office in one week.
“Democrats have already impeached the President once over a matter which was not worthy of that process. Now they seek to do it again, believing that this effort will wash for history the fact that the first impeachment was based on the thinnest of pretenses: a phone call with the leader of Ukraine. Impeachment should never be a ‘do-over,’ but that is what Democrats are seeking to do today.
“To my Republican colleagues who legitimize this process, you are doing great damage not only to the country, the future of the presidency, but also to the party. The millions who have supported President Trump and his agenda should not be demonized because of the despicable actions of a seditious mob. The individuals who participated in the storming of the Capitol should be met with the full force of the law. They should and will be held accountable.”
