I know it’s old news that Lindsey Graham is just the frickin’ worst. He’s a coward and a sellout, but he’s also just an idiot when it comes to the law and Donald Trump. First, he was claiming, wrongly, that the House was accusing Trump based on hearsay, but now he’s joined the conspirator in chief in grossly comparing the impeachment proceedings to a witch trial.
Here’s what he actually said and why. Trump has been given the opportunity to appear before the House Judiciary Committee before December 4th. So far, the impeachment inquiry hearings have been done before the House Intelligence Committee and Graham is complaining that Trump has been shut out by House Intelligence, while ALSO complaining about him being called before House Judiciary.
Let me see if I have this right.
Jerry Nadler is inviting President Trump to participate in the Judiciary Committee hearings — after all the facts were gathered in Schiff’s Intel Committee — where the president’s team was shut out.
Salem witches got a better deal than this!
— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) November 27, 2019
Let’s break down how stupid this is. For one, the Salem Witches were murdered, you absolute moron. But what the big point here that Graham is intentionally ignoring is: this isn’t a trial. The House committees are engaged in fact-finding to decide if they should take action and put forward articles of impeachment. No one is going to jail based on this proceeding and whether the due process clause of the constitution applies here is up for debate.
Now, we know that Donnie doesn’t know what a witch hunt really is. But Lindsey Graham theoretically went to law school, he should know better. His latching on to the idea that this is a “witch hunt” is another instance of him blindly parroting Trump as though his life depends on it and it’s deplorable.
The “Witches” in Salem (one of which I’m descended from, in case I needed to show my cred here) were innocent women on the outside of a very segmented and complex society. The people of Salem used impressionable people and their faith to attack these outsiders and manipulate the system to hurt those they didn’t like, and it was probably about real estate at its core.
That sounds a lot more like what Donald Trump does to people than what’s being done to him.
The term Witch hunt has been used more accurately regarding congressional hearings in the past: during the time of the Blacklist and the House Unamerican Activites Committee when they were hunting for imaginary communists. This was dramatized, allegorically, as a witch hunt in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible. These were both dark times in American history, but we can ultimately learn from them.
For one, we know that a real “witch hunt” is when the powerful use the law to oppress the weak and those they are threatened by. But also, as more and more Trump cronies refuse to appear before congress, it may do us well to remember that back in the days of the communist witch hunts of HUAC … those found in contempt of congress went to jail.
There’s always time to learn from the past, I guess. And if you really want to do that, check out Aaron Mahnke’s Uobscured season on the Salem Witch Trial. It’s a fantastic listen.
(Via: The Hill, Image: Stefani Reynolds/Getty )
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