A forthcoming book reports that South Carolina Sen.Lindsey Graham— a longtime ally ofDonald Trump— once allegedly threatened to support invoking the 25th Amendment to remove the former president from office amid the 2021 Capitol riots while urging Trump to more forcefully condemn the mob of his supporters who were descending on the building.
The political news website Axiosreported Wednesday thatin one passage fromThis Will Not Pass, the authors claim Graham, now 66, called White House lawyer Pat Cipollone as the riots were unfolding last year, calling on Trump to more forcefully denounce the rioters.
Otherwise, the book reports, Graham said, “We’ll be asking you for the 25th Amendment” to remove Trump from office.
As the events were unfolding,Trump offered contradictory messagesfor the mob, at one point telling them in a videotaped message “we love you” and “you’re very special.”
Trump went on to falsely claim that “we had an election that was stolen from us. It was a landslide election, and everyone knows it, especially the other side.” He also called on the rioters to disperse but warned on social media that “these are the things and events that happen.”
“People will say, ‘I don’t want to be associated with that’ … There will be a rallying effect for a while, the country says: We’re better than this,” the senator said, according to the book.
A spokesperson for Graham did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment regarding the book.
In the days following the riots, several reports surfaced about members of Trump’s own Cabinet who wereconsidering invoking the 25th Amendment, which allows the vice president (along with a majority of the Cabinet) to temporarily transfer the president’s powers unless he contests the issue, at which point Congress would vote on the matter within a set time frame.
Both CNN and ABC News reported that sources had briefed them on conversations about using the amendment to remove Trump’s powers for the remaining two weeks of his presidency beforeJoe Bidenwas sworn in on Jan. 20.
Ultimately, of course, Trump remained in office to serve out the remainder of his term.
Though a frequent defender of Trump’s, Graham made his frustrations with the former president known the day of the riots, delivering an impassioned speech on the Senate floor in which he noted their relationship but said “count me out.”
“i think it’s a uniquely bad idea to delay this election. Trump and I, we had a hell of a journey. I hate it being this way. I hate it being this way,” hesaidfollowing the deadly attack, which required the evacuation of lawmakers before the Capitol was cleared and deemed safe. “All I can say is count me out. Enough is enough.”
Congress certified the election for Biden that night, hours after the chaotic scenes that saw multiple people – including a Capitol Police Officer — killed.
One day later, Graham held a press conference in which he again lambasted the Trump supporters who breached the Capitol and questioned how the event could have happened the way it did.
While Graham has softened toward Trump since (hemet with the former presidentat his members-only Mar-a-Lago Club last February), his stance on the rioters hasn’t changed.
“If I run and if I win, we will treat those people from Jan. 6 fairly,” Trump said in his speech. “And if it requires pardons, we will give them pardons because they are being treated so unfairly.”
During an appearance onFace the Nation, Graham called the remarks “inappropriate,” adding that he didn’t “want to send any signal that it was okay to defile the Capitol.”
“There are other groups with causes that may want to go down to the violent path that these people get pardoned,” he added.
source: people.com
