CBS "Face the Nation" - Transcript: Interview with Sen. Lindsey Graham

Interview

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We turn now to the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee Lindsey Graham. Senator, good morning.

SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-South Carolina/@LindseyGrahamSC/Judiciary Committee Chairman): Good morning.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Big week here, but I want to begin where Nancy Pelosi just left off.

SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: Mm-Hm.

MARGARET BRENNAN: She lays out what she says is most problematic, the sequencing.

SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: Right.

MARGARET BRENNAN: The President in this call record says--

SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: Right.

MARGARET BRENNAN: --"Would you do us a favor?" He brings up debunked myth about the DNC server and then he brings up the Biden family and the need for an investigation.

SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: Mm-Hm.

MARGARET BRENNAN: He repeatedly lays that out. And also the aid package is mentioned.

SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: Right.

MARGARET BRENNAN: You have no problem with any of this?

SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: I have zero problems with his phone call--

MARGARET BRENNAN: Even with that sequencing?

SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: I just told you, I have zero problems with his phone call. There is no quid pro quo here, but I do have a problem with Nancy Pelosi. If you believe that Donald Trump did something to hurt this country you owe it to vote not talk about impeaching the President. The only way to open up an impeachment inquiry is to vote. We need a John Hancock moment from House Democrats. Quit hiding behind Nancy Pelosi. If you think the President did something wrong in this phone call then vote to open up an article of impeachment inquiry, and a lot of House Democrats won't because they are afraid.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, putting that political calculus aside I want to ask you about the content though--

SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: Yeah.

MARGARET BRENNAN: --of this conversation.

SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: Can I tell you about this conversation?

MARGARET BRENNAN: Do you think it was ethical for--

SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: Yes. I-- it's okay.

MARGARET BRENNAN: --the President to bring up Joe Biden?

SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: Yes, absolutely. I think somebody ought to look at whether or not Joe Biden had the prosecutor fired in an improper way. I love Joe Biden. I don't want to look at it. I want an inspector general somebody like Mueller. Did Biden know that his son was receiving fifty thousand dollars a month from a gas company being investigated by the prosecutor--

MARGARET BRENNAN: Isn't that just--

SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: --wait a minute--

MARGARET BRENNAN: --his payment--

SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: --wait a minute--

MARGARET BRENNAN: --for being on the board?

SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: The--

MARGARET BRENNAN: Do you have reason to believe--

SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: --the board-- the guys--

MARGARET BRENNAN: --it was anything more than that?

SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: --on the board being investigated for corruption and the guy doing the investigation is asked to be fired by Biden. I don't know what happened. It smells to high heaven. I never said the Mueller witch hunt-- the Mueller investigation was a witch hunt. I introduced legislation to protect Mueller.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Mm-Hm.

SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: This seems to me like a political setup. It's all hearsay. You can't get a parking ticket conviction based on hearsay. The whistleblower didn't hear the phone call.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Right.

SEN GRAHAM: Who told the whistleblower--

MARGARET BRENNAN: Which he says.

SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: --about the phone call and everything else?

MARGARET BRENNAN: He says--

SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: Donald Trump is--

MARGARET BRENNAN: --multiple White House officials were discussing it.

SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: --still an American. Every American deserves to confront their accuser. So this is a sham as far as I am concerned. I want to know who told the whistleblower about the phone call. I want to know why they changed the rules about whistleblowers not-- the hearsay rule was changed just a short period of time before the complaint was filed. The complaint sounds like a legal document, who help him-- who helped this guy write it or this girl write it? We're not going to try the President of the United States based on hearsay. Every American has a right to confront their accuser.

MARGARET BRENNAN: You wanted the President to release this partial call record--

SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: I did.

MARGARET BRENNAN: --but you're saying this is hearsay. The complaint on a number of fronts--

SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: Who?

MARGARET BRENNAN: --is matched by--

SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: The--

MARGARET BRENNAN: --the call record.

SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: --the transcript and the complaint are not matched. Now-- now wait a minute--

MARGARET BRENNAN: The reference to the DNC server--

SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: --please let me talk--

MARGARET BRENNAN: --the will you do--

SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: --please, please.

MARGARET BRENNAN: --a favor. I'm laying out the facts here.

SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: No-- no, you're not.

MARGARET BRENNAN: The repeated--

SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: No, you're making an argument that--

MARGARET BRENNAN: --reference to Joe Biden--

SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: Here's the point--

MARGARET BRENNAN: All those things--

SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: Joe Biden--

MARGARET BRENNAN: --are laid out here--

SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: --went to the--

MARGARET BRENNAN: --the fact that the attorney general was brought up.

SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: Never mind. You know you've got an opinion and I got an opinion. You've got me on the show to tell me what-- what I think. I think Mueller did a good job for the country and there was nothing there. I think this whole thing is a sham. I can't believe we're talking about impeaching the President based on an accusation based on hearsay. Who is this whistleblower? What bias do they have? Why did they pick this whistleblower to tell a hearsay story? The transcript does not match the complaint. What's going on here? Why did they change the rules about a whistleblower you can use hearsay when you could not just weeks before the complaint? So I think this thing stinks and let me tell you about Republicans--you want to know about Republicans? Republicans believe that you're guilty just by the accusation if you're--

MARGARET BRENNAN: Mm-Hm.

SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: --Brett Kavanaugh, it doesn't matter. They don't tell you when it happened and where it happened, it just happened thirty years ago. If you're Donald Trump, you don't get to confront your accuser like every other American. Republicans believe this President is being persecuted. They don't love Donald Trump and the way he does business. They like what he does, but they believe he is being persecuted. They believe that everybody is out to get him and I believe as to this complaint it smells.

MARGARET BRENNAN: So the acting director of National Intelligence who was put in that job by the Trump administration--

SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: Yeah.

MARGARET BRENNAN: --said he believed that the whistleblower was--

SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: No, he did not.

MARGARET BRENNAN: --acting in good faith--

SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: No, he did not. He said they couldn't question his motives--

MARGARET BRENNAN: Right--

SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: --but he didn't know if it's true or not. So Adam Schiff read the-- the-- the-- the transcript in a way that everybody would believe that Trump is guilty. The DNI did not say he-- he could confirm this--

MARGARET BRENNAN: No.

SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: He didn't know-- he didn't have any reason to believe the-- the whistleblower is doing anything wrong. What I want to know, who told the whistleblower about the transcript? Who told the whistleblower about a phone call between the President of the United States and a foreign leader?

MARGARET BRENNAN: Yeah, he--

SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: This is the third time a phone call has been compromised--

MARGARET BRENNAN: Right.

SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: I've read the transcript. I'm fine with it, but I'm not fine with this President being impeached based on hearsay. Every American should be able to confront their accuser, including Donald Trump.

MARGARET BRENNAN: But the-- the whistleblower here says that multiple White House officials conveyed this to him.

SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: Who are they?

MARGARET BRENNAN: And the fact--

SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: Who are they?

MARGARET BRENNAN: --pattern was laid out. But just--

SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: What-- what bias do they have--

MARGARET BRENNAN: --to-- to move on to another point--

SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: No, wait a minute. Let's stop right there. The whistleblower says I have no direct knowledge/

MARGARET BRENNAN: Right.

SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: Multiple White House officials told me this.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes.

SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: They tell me about a phone call. There's a disconnect. Who are these people? And what are they up to? You know this is-- Mueller wasn't a witch hunt but this is-- Salem witch trials have more due process than this--

MARGARET BRENNAN: Why--

SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: --due process than this.

MARGARET BRENNAN: --do--

SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: How do you know she's a witch? Somebody told me she's a witch.

MARGARET BRENNAN: What do you think--

SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: How do you know she's a witch?

MARGARET BRENNAN: Do you think the President's--

SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: I read articles thinking she might be a witch.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Do you think the President's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani is advising him on this? Should he be out there publicly calling for the Ukrainian government to investigate Joe Biden?

SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: Why don't you ask him? He's going to be on. Corruption abounds in the Ukraine--

MARGARET BRENNAN: If he's doing a good job? Do you think he's being advised-- advising the President on that?

SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: Here's what I think. I think nobody's asking about Joe Biden calling for the guy to be prosecuted-- fired who's looking into a board that his son--

MARGARET BRENNAN: Right.

SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: --sits on. And did Joe Biden know that his son was receiving fifty thousand dollars when he asked for the prosecutor to be fired?

MARGARET BRENNAN: You know this prosecutor though because I know you cover Ukraine, and you watch Russia very closely--

SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: People say he's dirty.

MARGARET BRENNAN: You know that he-- yeah exactly.

SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: Yeah, but you know what--

MARGARET BRENNAN: Not just the United States, the U.K., IMF--

SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: Did Joe Biden Know? Would you ask-- would you ask--

MARGARET BRENNAN: --other international organizations.

SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: Would you ask somebody this? Did Joe Biden know that his son was sitting on a board being investigated for corruption, and the guy doing the investigation, Joe Biden said, "If you don't fire this guy--

MARGARET BRENNAN: Mm-Hm.

SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: --I'll cut a billion dollars of aid off? Now, why am I asking that? A lot of Republicans don't believe the New Yorker and the political fact-checkers are really as adequate substitute. I'm all asking is due to Joe Biden's scenario, what you did for Trump, find somebody, not me, outside of politics to look and see if it makes sense. I love Joe Biden as a person--

MARGARET BRENNAN: Mm-Hm.

SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: --but we cannot give--

MARGARET BRENNAN: Should that go--

SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: --Democrats a pass and go after Republicans.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, our Paula Reid is reporting that Attorney General Bill Barr was quite upset to see his name linked in that transcript to this call for an investigation, he's linked there--

SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: Well you need to talk-- here's the thing--

MARGARET BRENNAN: --to Rudy Giuliani, You have overs. Have you asked the Attorney General if he was asked to investigate--

SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: Yeah, I did. I said, "Have you ever talked to Trump about anything in the Ukraine for corruption?" "No." "Did the President ever ask you to call anybody in the Ukraine? Did he ever mention going after Joe Biden?" "No." So this is a phone call between two presidents, one just getting reelected--just got elected. Congratulations. We are very generous to the Ukraine. Other countries like Germany should do more.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Mm-Hm.

SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: And oh, by the way, I have heard that this prosecutor that got fired, maybe he was a good guy and they fired him because he was looking at Joe Biden's son. Could you look into that? Congratulations. That to me is not a quid pro quo and the entire whistleblower complaint is based on hearsay and we're not going to impeach a President based on hearsay as long as I am around. This is a sham.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Mm-Hm.

SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: There's a political smell to this that's far different than Mueller.

MARGARET BRENNAN: What did you tell the President when you were golfing with him yesterday? Are you advising him?

SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: Work with Blumenthal and Murphy on guns. Keep fighting back. We have your back on this. I am openly telling everybody in the country I have the President's back because I think this is a setup. Work with us on guns. Try to do something on prescription drugs.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Mm-Hm.

SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: Govern the country and make Iran pay a price. You had a measured response when they shot down the drone. It didn't work, Mister President. They're running wild, the Iranians, put them back in a box. Try to be a good President. Defend yourself. And that's what Bill Clinton did. These numbers you saw--

MARGARET BRENNAN: Right.

SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: The only thing I can tell you, Americans are fair. And if they believe President Trump did something troubling, they'll count-- they'll account for that, but I don't think they're going to remove a man for office based on a hearsay accusation. And Bill Clinton was able to do two things at once.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Mm-Hm.
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SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: Defend himself and govern the country and that's my advice to President Trump.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Senator Graham, thank you.

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