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South Carolina GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham has threatened to call in the FBI to testify about security failures during the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riots if Democrats try to call even one witness at former President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial.
During an interview on Fox News, Graham warned against calling witnesses to speak on the charge of incitement to insurrection faced by the former president, who Democrats have accused of encouraging his supporters to attack the U.S Capitol.
Graham told Democrats to be careful about “opening that can of worms” of calling witnesses, arguing it would drag the trial out in a process that would be “bad” for America.
“To my Democrat colleagues, if you vote to call one witness, [when] none were called in the House, get ready for a long trial,” said the Republican senator.
“If you open that can of worms, we’ll want the FBI to come in and tell us about how people pre-planned this attack and what happened with the security footprint at the Capitol. You open up Pandora’s Box if you call one witness,” he said.
Even though some establishment Republicans have sided with Democrats in their support of an impeachment effort against former President Donald Trump, plenty of other GOP leaders are vehemently opposed to the idea.
Graham revealed earlier this week that some Senate Democrats are souring on the idea.
“There’s more than a handful of Democrats praying that [President] Joe Biden will get on the phone and call [Senate Democratic Leader Chuck] Schumer and say it’s over because they understand this is going to blow up in their face politically,” he said.
The South Carolina Republican insisted that his party is largely united against the impeachment effort.
Graham declared that he had “never felt better about the Republican Senate conference being united behind the idea that what the House did was wrong in terms of process.”
“The second impeachment of Donald Trump is not wearing well over time,” he said. “Democrats are in a box. They started this thing in the House, they impeached the president of the United States in Nancy Pelosi’s House in less than 50 hours from bringing it up to a conclusion, without a lawyer, not one witness was called.”
As a result, Graham predicted that the Senate will “have an overwhelmingly Republican vote that this second impeachment of Donald Trump is unconstitutional.”
WATCH:
McConnell has yet to determine how he will vote in the upcoming Senate impeachment trial, stating in a letter earlier this month that he intends to “listen to the legal arguments when they are presented to the Senate.”
His refusal to reveal his leanings and recent determination that Trump and “other powerful people” essentially “provoked” the January 6 mob have appeared to cause a bit of unease among Senate Republicans.
Graham, too, veered from his Senate colleague last week.
“I don’t agree with him,” Graham said of McConnell’s remarks. “That would be a crime, to provoke somebody, to incite them to violence. Show me the clip where he did that.”
While Graham praised McConnell as a “good leader” and “great street fighter,” he said that the Republican leader is “giving some legitimacy to this impeachment process,” which he said he believes is “wrong.”