Fox News "Hannity" - Transcript: Interview with Sen. Lindsey Graham

Interview

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Joining us now, chairman of Judiciary Committee. He led today's hearing and did a phenomenal job.

And I would say on a scale of one to 10, you and the attorney general get a thousand.

That list that you went down, that's the headline. This is over. He's not changing his mind and this is all beginning.

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM, R-S.C.: Well, to all my friends on the other side, we gave Mueller two years to do his job. He had 19 lawyers. He had $25 million and interviewed 500 people. He issued 2,000 subpoenas.

He had plenty of opportunity without interference.

The president gave him a million and a half documents. Everybody around the president and on the president's campaign testified voluntarily.

And here is what we know: there was no conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russians at all. The Mueller could not decide to -- chose not to press forward on obstruction. I always thought obstruction argument was absurd. It is over.

And the reason they are mad at Barr and me is because they didn't get the outcome they want. My friends on the other side want an outcome, and they don't care how they get it.

HANNITY: You know, Senator, I've known you a long time. I want you to delve into that line of questioning that I played where you went on your list.

GRAHAM: Right.

HANNITY: FISA abuse, the rigged criminal investigation into Hillary. It was all rigged. She did violate the Espionage Act, 18 USC 793. There was classified top secret information on that server.

She had an intent by deletions, Bleach Bit and hammers and pulling SIM cards. The intent was to destroy the evidence, the very thing -- that would be obstruction -- which the very thing liberals are acting like they care about, that would be a slam dunk obstruction case to me.

What are your thoughts?

GRAHAM: Well, what I tried to show is that when it came to the Trump campaign, we had Bob Mueller, one of the most experienced lawyers, former FBI director, take two years, $25 million, 19 lawyers. Everybody in the country believed he was a fair-minded guy and he reached a conclusion that the left doesn't like.

But the verdict is in for Mueller. No collusion. No obstruction.

Now, what I tried to show the public was that when it came to Clinton, Clinton's email investigation, there was no Bob Mueller involved. There were Strzok and Page who hated Trump's guts, wanted her to a hundred million to nothing.

I want the public to know that the FISA warrant obtained against Carter Page was based on garbage, collected by foreign agent paid for by the Democratic Party, that is unverified to this day. And I want to find out that they open up a counterintelligence investigation against President Trump for bad motives. And we're going to get the answers to all those questions.

HANNITY: You know, I think this is important as well. OK, so the issue finding out with that they rigged the Clinton investigation --

GRAHAM: Right.

HANNITY: By the way, is that the same time? Kind of interesting.

The -- where did this originate, this Crossfire Hurricane? Important questions.

GRAHAM: Right.

HANNITY: Let's talk about the FISA abuse.

GRAHAM: Right.

HANNITY: Now, "The New York Times" suggesting it might have been paid for Russian information? Wow, that's a big deal.

More importantly, do you believe as I do that a fraud was committed on the FISA court, in the FISA applications?

I read something. It was called, oh, the Grassley-Graham memo that said the bulk of information in the FISA applications was the paid-for dossier that might be Russian disinformation? Is that true, sir?

GRAHAM: Well, here's what I know -- that I know that McCabe said without the dossier that there would be no warrant. I know to this day there is no verification of the dossier. There's literally a bunch of garbage and the people certified to the court that it was reliable.

I know that Comey, the FBI director, after President Trump was elected, gave him the same dossier and told the president we can't verify. We just want you to know about it.

That doesn't add up. We're going to look at all of that.

But here's what I do know -- nobody cares when the other side, what the FBI did or didn't do when it comes to Clinton. They don't care what they did or didn't do when it comes to Trump. They are trying to destroy his presidency.

From their point of view, the rule of law is the tool to get an outcome. From my point of view, the rule of law protects all of us, including President Trump, including Republicans.

HANNITY: You know something, Senator, you were there with the Kavanaugh -- I thought you had one of your finest moments as a senator in the Kavanaugh hearings. It was interesting. There were a lot of "I believers" on the most outrageous allegation.

We have serious allegations now about the attorney -- I'm sorry, the lieutenant governor of the commonwealth of Virginia, rape and violent sexual assault by two women. I don't hear the "I believers".

I say that Donald Trump cured cancer, gave every American $5 million tonight and adopted the liberal agenda, they'd still hate him. Am I wrong?

GRAHAM: Well, now, you're right and it's sad because bipartisanship in their world is to be nice to their people, vote for their judges, set on the sidelines when they destroy a Trump judge. To give Mueller the space to do his job is not enough. When Mueller gives an answer they don't like, they'll destroy Bill Barr.

Bill Barr is a fine man. He will sleep well tonight. His critics are the problem and not him.

HANNITY: All right, Senator. Thanks for being with us.

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