Over the past three days, Democratic impeachment managers have used their time on the Senate floor to show graphic footage of the violence Donald Trump inspired on January 6, 2021. That footage has included panicked police officers calling for backup after being surrounded by rioters, rioters smashing through the doors of the Capitol, law enforcement being beaten, officer Daniel Hodges screaming in agony while being crushed by violent protesters, and a woman being fatally shot. Obviously, the point of showing such images is to drive home the gravity of what occurred on that day and to make it clear that if Trump is not punished for what he did, he or another president like him could instigate the same thing without fear. Unfortunately, the exercise hinges on Republican senators having a conscience, and as they’ve exhaustively shown for years now, they do not.
For example, in response to seeing clips of, again, a Capitol police officer literally being crushed by an angry mob, Senator Lindsey Graham did not react in horror but instead had this to say:
Offensive! Absurd! Yes, these words and more should be directed at Donald Trump for trying to overthrow the U.S. government because he didn’t like the results of the election, but for some reason Graham believes they apply to Democrats for walking lawmakers through the violence the ex-president incited. Jamie Raskin and company have a lot of nerve so thoroughly proving Trump’s guilt, and Graham, for one, won’t stand for it! In fact, he’d like to posit something else if he can: This is all the Capitol police’s fault.
Speaking to reporters after Wednesday’s presentation, the senator from South Carolina said that the footage made him “mad,” but not for the reason you might think. “These police officers had every right to use deadly force,” he said. “They should have used it. The people in charge of securing the Capitol let the country down.” (For those of you keeping up at home, this appears to be a new argument from Graham, who has previously blamed the Capitol attack on Nancy Pelosi, though we’re sure he hasn’t yet let her off the hook.)
Not surprisingly, Graham‘s unique take on the situation has been blasted by people who haven’t pledged their undying loyalty to Donald Trump no matter what.
Graham, of course, isn’t the only one who’s looked at the evidence presented by Democrats and thought, Donald Trump is an innocent man. Per The Washington Post:
