Graham, at the same time as he was defending his name to Raffensperger, revealed to reporters that he had additionally reached out to election officers in two different states the place the vote rely between Trump and President-elect Joe Biden was fairly shut — and the place the President has insisted, with zero proof, that there have been shenanigans concerned within the poll counting.
That
declare,
nevertheless, was
virtually instantly disputed by Nevada Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske, who
mentioned she had not spoken to Graham (or
every other member of Congress)
concerning the vote
rely within the state. Graham
told reporters he was
unsure who he had talked to in Nevada (uh, OK) and that he had spoken with Arizona Republican Gov. Doug Ducey in Arizona.
After all, all of this back-and-forth over who Graham referred to as and what, particularly, he mentioned misses this bigger level: Why within the hell has Lindsey Graham self-deputized himself to play this function for Trump? Graham has mentioned he didn’t make these calls at Trump’s behest.
In spite of everything, it is slightly odd for the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee to be inserting private calls into states that had tight vote counts seeking, uh, details about their voting processes. It isn’t an excessive amount of to recommend that such calls is likely to be regarded by the folks on the opposite finish of the road as a little bit of intimidation. Think about you’re an elections official in Nevada — I would identify names however Graham cannot keep in mind who he talked to! — and a name is available in from Graham, one in every of Trump’s most loyal and excessive profile allies. Type of surprising! And positively slightly nerve-wracking!
Apart the opportunity of intimidation of election officers, there’s simply how the entire thing appears to be like. Which is, um, not good. As a result of why is a sitting US senator not from Georgia, Arizona or Nevada out of the blue so within the trivialities of how a state conducts its personal elections? And why did Graham simply occur to precise a lot curiosity in these three states that simply occurred to be swing states within the 2020 election? (Sidebar: There are not any penalties in politics. None.)
So — even for Graham, who has comfortably settled into his
function as
high Trump toady over the President’s first
time period — this
appears like a brand new line that he has crossed.
Which is odd. As a result of in 64 days, Donald Trump will not be president anymore. However Graham will nonetheless be within the Senate — and compelled to look his colleagues within the eye and clarify why he did what he did over the past 4 years.
