On September 26th, 2019, Senator Lindsey Graham ran into two reporters outside a stake

house in Washington, D.C. That morning, the House Intelligence Committee had released

a whistleblower complaint that outlined a new scandal. In a phone call two months earlier,

on July 25th, 2019, President Donald Trump had pressured the new president of Ukraine,

Volodymyr Zelensky, to investigate Joe Biden, who at that time was the Democratic frontrunner

to challenge Trump in 2020. In the phone call, Trump had reminded Zelensky that the United States

through military aid was protecting Ukraine. In other words, Trump was trying to extort Zelensky

to help Trump win reelection. In that September conversation outside the stake house,

as it was later described by Peter Baker and Susan Glasser in their book The Divider, Graham

told the two reporters that Trump had just called him to ask how to deal with the scandal.

Graham's advice to Trump was to deny the allegations and to attack the accusers.

Graham knew Trump was dishonest. In fact, Graham told the reporters that Trump was quote,

a lying mother fucker. But despite this, and despite whatever Trump had done, Graham predicted

that Republicans in Congress, out of sheer party loyalty, would stand by the president no matter what.

Graham literally told the reporters that Trump quote, could kill 50 people on our side,

and it wouldn't matter. That was the condition of American democracy after three years of

Republican consolidation around Trump. The president, shielded by his party, could no longer be held

accountable. This is the corruption of Lindsey Graham, presented by the Bullwork podcast.

I'm your host, Will Salatayne.

The Ukraine scandal was a natural sequel to two other corrupt episodes Graham had already

defended. The first one was the Russia scandal. In that episode, Trump had gotten away with

soliciting foreign interference to help him defeat Hillary Clinton. So now, in Trump's re-election

...