Lindsey Graham Is a Coward, Exhibit 39204

By Ryan Bort, Rolling Stone

26 November 19

Trump’s ally in the Senate snubbed a veteran who asked him about the president’s conduct in office

ouse Republicans spent the week rhetorically hiding from a mountain of evidence that President Trump sought to extort Ukraine into helping him in the 2020 election. Over in the Senate, Lindsay Graham took a slightly different tact: physically hiding from an Iraq War veteran who had concerns about the commander-in-chief.

On Friday morning, Graham was confronted on Capitol Hill by Jeff Key, who engaged the senator about as respectfully as possible. Graham couldn’t handle it. Here’s the exchange:

KEY: “I see how you’re berated in the press and I honestly believe that you believe in our democracy.”

GRAHAM: “I do.”

KEY: “I’m a Marine, I went to Iraq. I believe as I believe that you do that President Trump is not acting in accordance to his oath, the oath that you took and I did to defend the Constitution.”

GRAHAM: [unintelligible stammering]

KEY: “You took an oath.”

GRAHAM: “Yeah I did, I don’t agree with you, I gotta go.”

Graham then abruptly turned his back on Key and disappeared behind a closed door. “Is that it?” Key said as Graham retreated. “That’s it,” the senator said before closing the door behind him.

Like his Republican colleagues, Graham has been unable to address the substance of the impeachment inquiry, instead opting to bash the process and indulge conspiracy theories about Deep State efforts to take down the president.

Sadly, his deflection efforts aren’t limited to cable TV hits. On Thursday, Graham, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, launched a probe into Joe Biden’s relationship with Ukraine. The investigation comes a month after he was pressured to begin one by Trump and his allies. He refrained from doing so at the time, he explained to the Washington Post, because didn’t want to “turn the Senate into a circus.”

Profiles in courage.