He was supposed to show up to testify at a hearing at the Fulton County courthouse, but he deliberately ignored the subpoena and didn’t show up. Now Lindsey Graham has been ordered to surrender to the police or be arrested.
Who’s up for a slow-motion car chase across Georgia?
I don’t watch TV, but somehow I had it on for the OJ Simpson car chase all those years ago. I’m not proud of myself.
NO BAIL FOR LINDSEY!!
I would love to see him show up for his hearing in a lovely orange jumpsuit. I can only hope that the judges of US recognize that they need to clamp down hard on these GOP members who think they are somehow exempt from the law.
The perfect reward for trying to play it safe when fascists are in power, sidling up to whichever side seems the safest at any given moment, having no courage. I’m too pessimistic about the USA’s ability to deal with its own crimes to think anything amazing will come of this, but it’s a fun moment.
All the MAGAs will start bleating witch soon enough.
@4: I don’t know about that. Trump’s untouchable status with these people does not extend to his underlings and enablers, who are fodder for the bus wheels when the time comes.
I haven’t seen an actual news story go as far as “ordered to surrender to the police”; the AP doesn’t, for example.
If he gets in trouble, he can follow the example of the dude in the mock prison cell at CPAC. He got busted for participating in the insurrection, but got off by informing on his friends!
This is the stuff you can’t make up.
What car chase? In Georgia? Georgia, particularly the greater Atlanta area, literally has some of the worst sprawl and the worst rush hour traffic in the US. I can make a case for Lindsey trapped in traffic and the cops trapped in traffic behind him… and no one wants to get out of cars to make the arrest because of all the heat and humidity. August in Georgia is like trying to breathe through a sopping wet wool blanket.
@7 and yes. Is there anyone who thinks that Lindsey wouldn’t fold like a cheap suit and rat out anyone and everyone? Doubtless telling himself all the while that he’s too pretty to go to prison…
@6: I believe you are correct. His testimony, presuming he fails to get it blocked by the courts, is scheduled for August 23 so it’s not like he’s past due.
@8- silvrhalide
My sister lives around Huntsville and though it was a good idea on paper to drive back to Florida by way of Chattanooga to take advantage of I-75, in the real world you don’t want to be near Atlanta during late afternoon rush hour. Oops.
The police should go after Stupid Trump as well.
The “Lifenday” site from which our esteemed host relayed this story shows a plethora of grammatical errors of the sort usually made by those not fluent in English, so I suspect the “ordered to surrender to the police” phrasing reflects a misunderstanding, not a scoop.
this is looking more dubious by the minute. the website at the link is a weird nothing with links to weird nothings and actually some kinda creepy articles in its history.
2 hours ago
https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/19/politics/fulton-county-lindsey-graham-testimony/index.html
So while he is unlikely go get dragged in cuffs he still has to comply.
.
To continue the theme of women who can win, I am celebrating Graham’s misery with Fet House Mode.
https://youtu.be/xf5sLj2IKYQ
He’s just acting the way an innocent person does, in this situation.
@19: I hope that by “innocent” you mean “an innocent,” as in “born yesterday,” as in “fell off the turnip truck”… because a person innocent of wrongdoing would have shown up to testify, confident that he/she/they had nothing to hide. (And remembering that it’s a grand jury, meaning that literally the only adverse consequences to a “witness” are (a) contempt for failing to show and (b) referral to the prosecutor for lying in front of the grand jury.)
I’m actually disturbed by the coloration of the photo. This is Lindsey Graham we’re talking about: The vehicle should definitely look whiter.
This does not seem to be legit story. If legit it should be all over the place and it is not. I hope it is, but at best if is premature. Nobody but lifenday has this so it does not seem very probable.
bionichips@18–
The story is being covered by CNN, NBS, PBS Newshour, CNBC, AP, NYT, Politico, Forbes, ABC, The Independent, UPI, NY Post, WaPo, Reuters, Globe and Mail, and numerous law blogs. If you think this story is not “all over the place”, I would strongly advise widening your circle of news sources.
Great American Satan@3–
My only disagreement with your comment is when you say Graham has been “sidling up to fascists.” Nope. He is not a political milquetoast. He is one of the fascists.
How is graham so bad? Fascist? He was quite with it in his criticism of trump during the 2016 primaries. Turned toady afterward but what has he done that’s so bad?
Fortunately I found a package of microwave popcorn when I was looking for something else in the pantry. BRING IT ON!!!!!
chrislawson @19: The major news networks are just reporting that Graham lost his attempt to get out of having to testify next week, not that he’d failed to show up today.
About LIFENDAY:
Sounds legit.
Hm. I wouldn’t have thought Georgia could send police into South Carolina or DC to arrest Graham if he fails to show up. How does this work? (I remember this coming up when Texas tried to go after its AWOL legislators who were staying away to keep them from getting quorum).
Admittedly, to be sure, I myself would think twice about getting a state pissed off at me to the point where I dare never set foot there (or fly through Atlanta) again, even if it’s one where I don’t live. But if this is the only leverage they have, it seems a bit weak.
@24 It’s not legit, because if Graham really had been ordered to surrender to police or be arrested, I’d be seeing the news everywhere. Plus, a Google search for “lindsey graham surrender” yielded a couple Youtube videos from July claiming Graham has been ordered to surrender/has surrendered back then, last month. All from same person.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XTsCeaqOh5U
chrislawson @19, it is?
Care to provide a citation?
PZ included the pic of OJ Simpson being pursued by that fleet on LA highways as a joke. The article at the dubious website does cite dubious tweets that overstate the situation, but the news sources linked elsewhere in the comments corroborate that a judge has put him in a position where he needs to testify ASAP or face some kind of legal difficulty – not sure what that looks like.
As to how Graham is one of the fascists, he might not be the perfect toady for cheeto mussolini, but he’s a modern republican. The party platform is nazism in all but genocide, and the “tough on crime” / police license to kill policies certainly lend themselves to slavery and racist murder.
I guess one could wonder, is it better for a person to be an unrepentantly evil sonofabitch, or to be a hypocritical weasel about it? And does the weasel path make one less of a fascist? Somebody else can split those hairs. I may have understated Graham’s own fascism in an effort to describe his weaselry. It’s a fair cop.
I think this is one of those cases of really wanting a story to be true setting the hook.
@27. John Morales & #19.chrislawson :
FWIW My quick google search found this :
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/judge-wont-let-sen-lindsey-graham-delay-testimony-in-georgia-election-probe
From PBS and this :
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/8/15/judge-sen-graham-must-testify-in-georgia-election-probe
From Al Jazeera. With Politico page here :
https://www.politico.com/news/lindsey-graham
Though BBC news has nothing nor does Aussie ABC.
StevoR, you imagine I did not do due diligence? :)
(1) Apologies to all. I misread the comments skeptical of the “surrender to police” part as comments skeptical of the “forced to testify” story.
(2) chesapeake@21–
— Graham’s first political supporter was Storm Thurmond.
— Graham was one of the co-sponsors of an inquiry to impeach Clinton citing no charges or allegations (this was before the Lewinsky story broke).
— The criticism of Trump you mention only lasted 2 years. By 2017, Graham was attacking media outlets for reporting Trump’s racist comments. By 2018 he was openly campaigning for Trump to win re-election.
— When McCain died and Trump repeatedly criticised McCain, “lifelong friend” Graham attacked the media for reporting Trump’s comments rather than Trump for making the comments.
— Graham advised Trump Jr to ignore a subpoena from the Senate Intelligence Committee.
— Graham opposed the attempt to impeach Trump, saying before the trial even started that he had “disdain for the accusations and the process. So I don’t need any witnesses.”
— Graham was one of the agitators casting doubt on Trump’s election loss. “If Republicans don’t challenge and change the U.S. election system, there will never be another Republican president elected again.” He donated $500K to Trump’s lawsuits against the election result, and argued that Republicans should appoint presidential electors who would vote for Trump.
— During the Georgia recount, Graham called the Georgia Secretary of State to suggest that he invalidate all mail-in votes in districts where a certain percentage were invalid.
— Graham voted against the impeachment of Trump.
— Graham voted against the formation of the January 6 committee.
— Graham blocked the appointment of Merrick Garland on the basis that judges should not be appointed in an election year, then pushed through the election of Kavanaugh in an election year.
— Graham defended sexual assaulter and perjurer Kavanaugh during the nomination sessions.
— Graham defended the illegal surveillance of American citizens by the NSA.
— Graham personally amended the Defense Authorization Act to deny habeas corpus to American citizens held in Guantanamo.
— Graham defended this legislation by comparing it favorably to the internment of Japanese citizens during WW2, which he described as a good model for domestic incarceration.
— Graham moved to extend the time immigrant children could be held in prison camps from 20 days to 100 days.
— Graham voted for the Defence of Marriage Act.
— Graham tried to criminalise abortion after 20 weeks with a small number of exceptions.
— Graham not only voted for the 2002 Iraq Resolution, he was one of the “three amigos” who fiercely campaigned for it.
— Graham argued for a permanent US occupation of Afghanistan.
— Graham opposed nuclear arms reduction.
— Graham opposes any efforts to rein in Israeli expansionism and actively advocated for the Golan Heights to be recognised as part of Israel.
— Graham agitated for an invasion of Venezuela.
It’s true that Graham has been moderate on some issues, especially by modern Republican standards, but Graham’s overall record has been pro-war, pro-election rigging, pro-authoritarian, pro-nationalism, pro-incarceration without trial, pro-Trump, anti-abortion, anti-LGBT, and anti-immigrant. On issues where he has expressed a reasonably progressive view, he has always betrayed those principles under political pressure, often completely reversing his position. He is a fascist, just not the worst of them.
@30. John Morales : “StevoR, you imagine I did not do due diligence? :) “
In this specific regard I imagined (& assumed) nothing merely responded to your question in #27 and acted on my own curiosity here. It did occur to me as I was typing that you could have googled this yourself but since you’d asked & raised the issue I thought I’d shed some light / links on the matter here..
One might imagine that if you had done such a google search yourself you might have mentioned it. Without such a mention, why presume you had? I tend to take things on face value unless there is strong reason to do otherwise or surrounding context indicates otherwise.
Actually as of right now he is not being threatened with arrest. That is a little bit of sensationalism by the article writer. It is a possible out come if he ignores the judge, but was not in the ruling.
Seems unlikely that he failed to appear since he’s scheduled to testify next Tuesday.
ORigel @26- My snark closure didn’t show in the comment, for some reason. I did put “/s” at the end.
Obviously, that gibberish does not help the site sound legit. Wonder where PZ dug up that one??
Oh … him.
Oh … him.
Re: chrislawson @ #31…
A minor nitpick to an otherwise good list of what Graham has done.
Graham cannot have voted against Trump’s impeachments. Impeachment is carried out in the House and Graham is a senator. What Graham did was to vote against convicting Trump of the charges on which he was impeached.
Oh, is that all?😁 thanks.
I was imagining the last part of the pursuit in The Blues Brothers with Lindsay Graham’s face superimposed on wossname the guy from Saturday Night Live.
whheydt– thanks for the correction
chesapeake– no problem, it’s easy to misconstrue Graham as a GOP moderate given the way the news cycle works, but his record speaks for itself.
Lindsey Graham is slightly less screwed for the moment:
Appeals court temporarily blocks subpoena to Graham in Georgia election-fraud probe
Judge sets expedited schedule for Lindsey Graham
The judge is allowing Lindsey Graham to challenge the subpoena but with a schedule set in days rather then weeks or months. The judge obviously realizes that part of what Graham is doing is stalling and the judge isn’t having it.