Lindsey Graham ties himself in knots trying to defend Trump over classified documents indictment

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Donald Trump’s on-again, off-again ally in the Senate issued a half-hearted defence of the former president on Sunday as Republicans across Washington issued varied responses to the federal indictment against the former president.

Sen Lindsey Graham was on ABC’s This Week, where he received a grilling by host George Stephanopoulos about the allegations in the Justice Department’s 37-count indictment, unsealed last week.

In one exchange, the South Carolina senator blew up and demanded that he be allowed to finish his remark after Stephanopoulos, attempting to get him back on track, interrupted his spiel about Hillary Clinton and a private email server she used to store data during her time as secretary of State, in violation of federal rules.

“You didn't answer the question," Stephanopoulos shot back.

"Well, yeah, I'm trying to answer the question from a Republican point of view. That may not be acceptable on this show,” Mr Graham complained in response.

He would go on to argue that many Republicans, including apparently Mr Graham himself, see the Justice Department as applying two different standards to Donald Trump and his Democratic rivals like Joe Biden, who was found to have a small trove of classified documents dating back to his time as vice president at his home and office, as well as Ms Clinton, who was investigated by the FBI for her use of the private server.

"Most Republicans believe we live in a country where Hillary Clinton did very similar things, and nothing happened to her,” he argued.

"Whether you like Trump or not, he did not commit espionage," Mr Graham continued. "He is not a spy. He's overcharged. Did he do things wrong? Yes, he may have. He will be tried about that. But Hillary Clinton wasn't."

There are a few facts that undermine the assertion that Mr Trump and his Democratic allies are (or should be) on the same playing field. For one, all indications point to the idea that Mr Trump and his team delayed and fought federal authorities for months after the trove of documents was discovered, only yielding the bulk of them during an FBI raid. Secondly, as secretary of state, Ms Clinton’s records would not fall under the authority of the Presidential Records Act. And thirdly, the FBI investigated Ms Clinton for months in a politically damaging probe that is widely thought to have contributed to her defeat to Donald Trump in 2016, even if it did not eventually end in criminal charges.

There are also the other serious allegations that Mr Graham did not discuss, including witness tampering, which only tangentially relate to the ex-president’s choice to retain records and documents from his administration.

Mr Graham went on in the interview to reassert that he was still supporting Mr Trump’s third bid for the presidency, even though he would not defend the specific behaviour alleged in the Justice Department’s indictment which he appeared to dismiss entirely as a hit job.

His comments are just the latest in a long line of defences for Mr Trump, whose political future he has also vocally opposed on at least two separate occasions, including in the runup to the 2016 Republican nominating convention as well as the immediate aftermath of January 6.

The South Carolina senator is considered a case study of the Republican Party’s evolution under Mr Trump, which continues to force many of the ex-president’s former detractors to return to his embrace in order to protect their political futures.