On Wednesday, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) hosted a conspiratorial hearing in which he tried to spotlight supposed misconduct on the part of those responsible for the Russia investigation. Specifically, Graham hosted former official Sally Yates as a witness in light of her work on the Russia investigation at the Justice Department, but Yates promptly soundly refuted Graham’s insistence that the investigation into Trump associate Michael Flynn had been politically biased from the start. Yates provided no room for Graham’s conspiratorial nonsense.
This should motivate voters to dump Lindsey Graham. https://t.co/xo0PiqcwAN
— Jill Wine-Banks (@JillWineBanks) August 5, 2020
Graham asked Yates:
‘The interview with General Flynn — were you investigating a policy difference between the Trump administration and the Obama administration?’
Yates promptly replied:
‘No, Senator, we were not investigating a policy difference.’
Graham followed up by asking whether or not the FBI was investigating a crime, but Yates continued:
‘We were investigating a counterintelligence threat.’
Graham kept following up, but as Yates tried to continue to clarify the reality of the situation, he interrupted her and ranted:
‘No, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute, this is very important — your beef with Flynn was that he was undercutting Obama policy. Is that what you were worried about?’
Yates replied by explaining that the point was the cover-up of the contents of Flynn’s communications with the then-Russian Ambassador to the United States, with whom he’d discussed Obama-era sanctions on Russia. As has been explained at length elsewhere, that cover-up could have provided the opportunity for Flynn — who was Trump’s national security adviser at the time — to be manipulated by the Russians into doing their bidding, since they could have threatened to release the truth of Flynn’s communications — although Graham seemingly refused to acknowledge this fact.
You call a witness to testify because you want to hear what they have to say. Sen. Graham's constant interruption of @SallyQYates, who finally politely admonished him “if I could finish an answer, Senator” suggests he has a different agenda. I would have liked to hear the answers
— Joyce Alene (@JoyceWhiteVance) August 5, 2020
As Yates put it:
‘The concern was not about the policy difference here, senator. The concern was about him undercutting the Obama administration and then covering it up.’
Check out video of some of Graham’s interaction with Yates below:
The Sally Yates hearing is going badly for Lindsey Graham. Roughly an hour into the hearing and Graham's claims that Flynn was investigated political reasons have been wrecked by Yates. pic.twitter.com/An5m1TiMYl
— Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) August 5, 2020
At one particularly noteworthy point during the Wednesday Judiciary Committee hearing, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) criticized Graham for his incessant interruptions of Yates. As Leahy put it:
‘Mr. Chairman, let her answer the question. Just because it’s a woman testifying doesn’t mean she has to be cut off every answer.’
.@SenatorLeahy to Lindsey Graham — "Let her answer the question. Just because it's a woman testifying doesn't mean she has to be cut off every answer." pic.twitter.com/2PUJCrqgtD
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 5, 2020
Trump weighed in on the hearing on the morning that it took place with one of his now very familiar tirades about the supposed corruption inherent in the Russia investigation. He ranted:
‘Sally Yates has zero credibility. She was a part of the greatest political crime of the Century, and ObamaBiden knew EVERYTHING! Sally Yates leaked the General Flynn conversation? Ask her under oath. Republicans should start playing the Democrats game!’
Sally Yates has zero credibility. She was a part of the greatest political crime of the Century, and ObamaBiden knew EVERYTHING! Sally Yates leaked the General Flynn conversation? Ask her under oath. Republicans should start playing the Democrats game!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 5, 2020
Trump has consistently tried to depict the Russia investigation as some kind of grandiose conspiracy against him, which is just ludicrous. His claims that it’s the “greatest political crime of the century” are a completely unserious mockery of the presidency — just this very century, in the strictest sense, even the 9/11 terror attacks took place! Trump is so pathologically self-obsessed that he’s insisting that his team having to face accountability for their behavior is “the greatest political crime of the Century.”
She answered this question under oath at a public hearing carried wall-to-wall on tv three years ago. https://t.co/vFOOhv5v6A
— Matthew Miller (@matthewamiller) August 5, 2020
