Senator Lindsey Graham is all-in with Trump's lawlessness as long as he's going after people they both perceive as their enemies. This week, Trump signed another executive order, this time targeting the law firm Paul Weiss:
President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Friday suspending security clearances of Mark Pomerantz and those who work at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison. The order also restricts government access to lawyers and employees at the New York-based law firm. [...]
Notably, the executive order was signed the same day that Trump spoke at the Department of Justice, where he attacked those who prosecuted him.
The new executive order is the third time Trump has taken action against a law firm. On Wednesday, a federal judge temporarily blocked parts of Trump's executive order targeting Perkins Coie, ruling the order was unconstitutional.
The language in this executive order mirrors that of the order that targeted Perkins Coie.
Graham was asked about the executive order on this Sunday's Face the Nation on CBS, and never mind the judge's ruling. Graham believes it's just fine to go after the firms "in a lawful way," knowing full well it's unlawful. Host Margaret Brennan wasn't buying Graham's nonsense, but didn't give much in the way of push back either:
MARGARET BRENNAN: Yeah you had been an advocate for soft power, I want to ask you about what's happening here at home. There were more executive orders from the president this week targeting some of the country's most prominent law firms, including Paul Weiss. He wants to restrict business activities of the firm, despite a federal judge ruling in a different case that it's unconstitutional. The President suspended security clearances at the firm. He stripped clearances from lawyers over at Covington & Burling as well because they were involved in representing former Special Counsel Jack Smith. Do you support this?
SEN. GRAHAM: Yeah, I think all of these things- I think Jack Smith was politically motivated. I think the Russian hoax, a lot of people should have gone to jail, and they didn't. I think the idea that President Trump was an agent of Russia was manufactured. The Steele Dossier was based on lies and falsehoods coming from a source that said he never meant it to be used in the fashion it was used. I think Jack Smith's effort to prosecute President Trump for January 6 was politically motivated, and people who engage in trying to destroy President Trump, I don't mind him going after them in a lawful way. I don't mind restrict--
MARGARET BRENNAN: Is this lawful?
SEN. GRAHAM: You know when Biden took- took- yeah I think so.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Is this good for the US legal system, Senator? Because the President is trying to use government power to punish private business because he didn't like some of the work they had been doing.
SEN. GRAHAM: Private business aided government power in a fashion to destroy Donald Trump's life. You know- on our side, nobody in your world gets it, but our people believe that the Justice Department was used as a weapon to destroy Trump's campaign and his business interests and to ruin his family- that they made up bogus charges and they proceeded in a fashion that was designed to destroy him, politically and personally. I believe that. If these people involved pay a price, they got nobody but themselves to blame, that's what I believe--
MARGARET BRENNAN: --But these are lawyers working on cases that- you're making it sound like the work that they take on is somehow part of a conspiracy, and they should be punished for it.
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM: Yeah, I think- I think these law firms were pushing legal theories that, to me, were designed for political outcomes more than legal outcomes. You know, we can have a debate about- you know, holding a lawyer accountable for his client's actions.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Yeah.
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM: I generally don't like that, but these- but these laws firms--
MARGARET BRENNAN: That's what this sounds like--
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM: --and Jack Smith using the power of government- incorporating these law firms in my- in my view, were trying to disrupt and take down the Republican nominee for president. That this was an orchestrated effort, and Biden only regretted they didn't do it sooner. So it was politically motivated, and everybody with their fingerprints on it, I hope they pay a price.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Senator, I know- since you're on the Judiciary Committee--
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM: And my answer's not going to change--
MARGARET BRENNAN: --and have that oversight- important to get your point of view, but I got to leave it there for today.
Everything is projection with these people. Brennan should have pointed out that there was no politicization of the Justice Department under Biden and Jack Smith was just doing his job, and that the one politicizing the Justice Department are Trump and Republicans, but I know that's a bridge too far for any of these so-called journalists.
