Trump suck-up Lindsey Graham once again proved that there’s nothing a Republican president can do when when it involves dropping bombs on brown people’s heads that he won’t defend.
Graham made an appearance on this Sunday’s Face the Nation, and was asked about the criticism from Rand Paul and others of Trump’s extrajudicial killings of supposed drug traffickers, some of whom have turned out to be fishermen in the Caribbean, and Graham, of course, defended Trump, and cited some examples of other presidents committing war crimes as well as some sort of supposed defense of Trump.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, there’s a lot there, sir, but you cited a Democratic senator’s criticism. He’s not the only one.
SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: Yes.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Some of your Republican colleagues have been uncomfortable with what little information has been shared with Congress.
Take a listen.
(BEGIN VC)
SENATOR RAND PAUL (R-KY): But if they want all-out war where we kill anybody and everybody that is in the country of Venezuela or coming out, that has to have a declaration of war. It’s something that is not pretty, very expensive. And I’m not in favor of declaring war on Venezuela. But the Congress should vote. The president shouldn’t do this by himself.
SENATOR JAMES LANKFORD (R-OK): If this was happening with this level of insight under the Biden administration, I’d be apoplectic.
(END VC)
MARGARET BRENNAN: Todd Young also criticized this.
SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: Yes.
MARGARET BRENNAN: What exactly is the end game? Because you’re talking about regime change in Venezuela.
SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: Yes.
MARGARET BRENNAN: The president saying this is about drug boats.
SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: Yes. Well, I think the end game is to make sure that Venezuela and Colombia cannot be used to poison America. That the narco terrorist dictator, Maduro, no longer be able to threaten our country and to send in drugs to kill Americans.
As to Rand Paul, I just disagree fundamentally with his approach. We didn’t have a declaration to go into Panama. Bush 41 went into Panama to replace the leadership there because the Panama leadership, Panamanian leadership, were working with drug cartels to threaten our country.
Reagan didn’t have a declaration of war, congressional authorization, to deal with Cuban influence.
So, this idea of – Rand Paul, I just fundamentally disagree with.
To the other senators, you deserve more information and you’re going to get more information. But there is no requirement for Congress to declare war before the commander in chief can use force. Panama and Grenada are two examples in our backyard where Republican presidents chose to go after countries and leaders that were threatening our people.
After Brennan pointed out that what Trump and Hegseth are doing violates what’s in the JAG manual, JAG lawyer Graham pretended he had no idea what she was talking about.
MARGARET BRENNAN: But there – there seemed to be a number of issues wound up in here. I know you personally used to serve as a judge advocate in the Air Force.
SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: Yes. Yes.
MARGARET BRENNAN: We looked at the JAG manual. “Preventive self-defense employed to counter non-imminent threats is illegal under international law. So, if we are not at war and these suspected criminals pose no threat of imminent violence, isn’t this potentially a war crime to be killing the people on these boats and then to be taking out a leader?
GRAHAM: No, not at all. I don’t know what manual you’re referring to, but I know what President Bush 41 did. He took down Ortega, the leader of Panama, because he was involved in drug trafficking, threatening our country.
Venezuela is now partnering with Hezbollah. Hezbollah is running out of money because Iran is weak. They’re partnering with drug cartels in Venezuela.
After Graham continued to insist that people trying to bring drugs into the United States pose some “eminent threat” to the country, Brennan pressed him on the ridiculous analogy, and Graham again cited other presidents who were breaking the law.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, is trafficking cocaine an armed attack on the United States? That’s what you’re equating it to?
SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: I am saying that there’s plenty of law under article – Article II powers of the president are designed to protect our country from threats, foreign and domestic.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes.
SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: Was it illegal for Bush to take Ortega out in Panama? Was it illegal for Bush – Reagan to go into Grenada to stop Cuban influence building this big, long runway. There’s plenty of precedent here to do what he’s doing.
But the game has changed. The game has changed when it comes to narco trafficking drug organizations. We’re going to take you out.
After Brennan pressed him on Hegseth removing the “top uniformed officers” who Hegseth called “road blocks to orders that are given by a commander in chief” and the fact that it “raises concern that commanders are not being given adequate legal counsel,” Graham lost it and continued to insist that what Trump is doing is legal.
SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: That’s – that’s garbage. That’s absolute garbage to say that President Trump doesn’t have the –
MARGARET BRENNAN: Which, that Hegseth said that?
SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: No, no, I’m saying the – the – the theory that President Trump is doing something here illegally, dealing with a country that’s run by an indicted drug dealer, is the same as Panama. There’s a better case to go into Venezuela than there was Panama. There’s a better case to deal with Colombia than there was Grenada.
Yes, I’ve been doing this all of my adult life. I have all the confidence in the world that President Trump has the legal authority, but more importantly, he’s doing the right thing.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes.
SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: More Americans have died from cocaine and fentanyl poisoning than any terrorist group in the world. I am very pleased that we now have a president who is going to use the full force of – of the American people, the might of America, to protect us from narco terrorist states and drug organizations. Keep it up, Mr. President. We’re not committing murder, we’re protecting our nation from people that want to poison us.
Graham knows full well what Trump is doing is not legal. He went onto attack Democrats again and pretend their only recourse would be to cut off funding for the troops.
Some pushback from Brennan on most of Graham’s lies would have been nice, but once again our corporate media has failed us with holding these liars accountable.
