WASHINGTON D.C., DC — South Carolina U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham said some of the President's actions played a role in leading to Wednesday's mob riot at the U.S. Capitol and called for the prosecution of everyone who took part in the lawlessness.
Graham held a press conference Thursday addressing the events that took place at the Capitol building by pro-Trump protesters turned rioters.
“Yesterday the capital of the United States was taken over by domestic terrorists," Senator Graham says. "A band of people, who were terrorist snot patriots, occupied the floor of the House, drove the Senate out of its chamber, and the question for the country is how could that happen 20 years after 9-11?
Graham, who's been one of President Donald Trump's biggest supporters, is now calling for a peaceful transfer of power, and criticized the effort by some Republican congressmembers to block the certification of Joe Biden's win in the Electoral College.
"Are there irregularities in this election?" he says. "Yes I'm sure there are. Have they been overblown? Absolutely."
He said some in Trump's legal team had been part of a constant effort to spread misinformation.
He says the President's decision to hold a rally with thousands of supporters, who then marched to the Capitol and began the violence, was not good.
"When it comes to accountability the President needs to understand that his actions were the problem not the solution," Graham says. "That rally yesterday was unseemly, it got out of hand, and a good friend of mine, [Trump lawyer] Rudy Giuliani, did not help."
He said the day "tarnished" what he says are Trump's accomplishments, which include the 2017 tax bill, three Supreme Court justices and other judicial appointments, and deregulation.
Graham is calling for the prosecution of every person who breached the building and a task force to go after them. He even says he'll check in every week with the Justice Department to make sure that this is done.
The Senator says those who committed the acts were "domestic terrorists" who took over the Capitol and it should never happen again. “The people who were sitting in chairs need to be sitting in jail cells," he said. "The people who attacked the Capitol Hill police need to be charged with attacking a police officer. Sedition may be a charge for some of these people."
Graham also said he doesn’t believe the 25th Amendment, which lays out a process where the cabinet and Vice-President can remove a president if that person can't execute the duties of the office, should not be invoked in this instance. "I’m looking for a peaceful transfer of power, I’m looking for the next 14 days to reset and we hand off power in a traditional sense by it being a peaceful transfer.”
As far as the law enforcement response to the riot, Senator Graham had a lot of questions.
“How could we not be prepared? How can in a joint session of Congress with the vice president in the building could you not do better than this? Where were the National Guard? Black Lives Matter protests have you seen the images on the Capital steps. We had National Guard members in riot gear. Why weren’t you this prepared this time around?”
He also stated that he doesn't regret any of his support for President Trump but acknowledged that it was time to move the power over to President-Elect Biden.