Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina has warned of a "riot in the streets" if former United States President Donald Trump is indicted over taking classified documents from the White House to his Mar-a-Lago estate.
The prediction was made during an interview where the senator later returned to the subject, adding that if authorities tried to prosecute Trump, there would be riots in the streets. While the remarks could be considered a brief quip, in this instance, it is not that simple or easy to overlook.
Lindsey Graham's Riot Prediction
The statement was made as federal law enforcement faced an escalating number of threats from right-wing extremists. Furthermore, when Graham's comments started circulating on social media, Trump himself promoted the senator's prediction.
One key thing about Graham's comments is that it seems the Republican senator is no longer trying to suggest that the former president is innocent, but rather, expressing his indifference to Trump's apparent guilt, as per MSNBC.
The South Carolina lawmaker's remarks also come despite mounting evidence against the former president. He also said that most GOP members, including himself, believe that when it comes to Trump, there is no law, suggesting that it was all a ploy to get the Republican businessman.
Graham, similar to other GOP leaders, briefly broke with Trump after the Jan. 6 Capitol Hill riot, adding that he was "done" with the former president. But later, the South Carolina official was making excuses for Trump's misdeeds and effectively returned to his MAGA camp.
According to the New York Daily News, Graham is currently fighting a subpoena that is urging him to testify before a Georgia grand jury about Trump's effort to bully state officials into overturning his 2020 presidential election loss to Joe Biden in the Peace State.
Investigation of Trump's Mar-a-Lago Estate
Graham's prediction comes as the FBI is probing Trump for improperly taking the documents when he left office and failing to return them even when given a subpoena. Similar to other GOP members, the South Carolina senator resorted to rehashing the Hillary Clinton email saga as a reason why Trump should not be prosecuted.
The Republican added that the intensifying investigation into the highly classified documents stored at Trump's Florida home contrasted with the hands-off attitude the FBI had taken toward the current president's son, Hunter Biden, over possible tax and foreign lobbying violations.
Kevin Bishop, a spokesman for Graham, emphasized on Monday that the South Carolina senator was making a prediction, not a threat. On Monday while in Charleston, Graham clarified his remarks, saying that the U.S. cannot live with this kind of double standard.
Graham noted that he was rejecting violence and was not calling for it in his remarks regarding the investigation of Trump. He noted that the bottom line is, that there will be a lot of people left upset if the former president is prosecuted.
The situation comes as a loyal Trump supporter was killed earlier this month when he tried to breach the FBI's office in Cincinnati. Threats have also rained down on the judge involved in approving the search warrant of Mar-a-Lago, Bruce E. Reinhart, the New York Times reported.
Related Article:
Republicans Defend Trump Keeping Classified Documents at Mar-a-Lago, Kinzinger Calls it 'Hypocrisy'
