Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) is fed up with the way law enforcement overstep their authority in dealing with suspects, so he’s doing something about it.
On Wednesday, Graham found time in his busy schedule, which included a full four hours of complimenting the cut of the president’s suit and his exquisite jawline, to write a letter to FBI Director Christopher A. Wray asking for a briefing on longtime Trump friend and self-proclaimed “dirty trickster” Roger Stone’s arrest.
Yep, Graham is continuing his newfound role as Trump’s favorite congressional kitten heel and using his powers to ask that the FBI brief his committee and answer questions about Stone’s arrest by Feb. 5, which just happens to be the same day as Trump’s State of the Union address.
Graham is concerned not about the safety of America or getting to the truth about how far collusion between Russia and the Trump administration actually goes. He’s concerned about “the number of agents involved, the tactics employed, the timing of the arrest” of Stone.
“The American public has had enough of the media circus that surrounds the Special Counsel’s investigation,” Graham said in the letter, referring to Robert Mueller’s investigation into all things Russia, including handing their No. 1 operative the White House, the Washington Post reports. “Yet, the manner of this arrest appears to have only added to the spectacle.”
Also, oddly enough, the president of the United States actually dignified the conservative media rag the Daily Caller by giving them an interview in which he claimed he’d “think about” asking the FBI to review its policies on the use of force in Stone’s arrest.
Trump told the Daily Caller that he was “speaking for a lot of people that were very disappointed to see that go down that way. To see it happen where it was on camera, on top of it. That was a very, very disappointing scene,” the Post reports.
First off, no one besides rich white Republican men who are friends of the president, or friends of Stone, give a shit about how he was arrested. They are acting as if they beat this man and threw him in the back of a squad car. Secondly, as we’ve learned before when the president’s says “a lot of people” or “many people,” he means no one. As in, “No one has ever asked me this.” Thirdly, Stone’s arrest proves that white men just being arrested causes more of a stir than black men being shot and killed.
Graham didn’t have this same energy when a white police officer shot and killed Walter Scott as he ran away. The shooting happened in Graham’s home state, and he merely issued what has now become the ad hoc, blanket tragedy “thoughts and prayers” statement.
“Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family of Walter Scott,” Graham said. “The horrific video is very difficult to watch and deeply troubling on many fronts.”
Graham also made sure to defend law enforcement in his second paragraph.
“I also know the actions of the officer in this situation do not accurately reflect on the many valuable contributions made by thousands of law enforcement officers in South Carolina and across our nation,” he added.
But Graham is going to hold a full committee on the arrest of Stone. Stone was not beaten, he was not injured, he wasn’t even tussled, yet Graham and President Trump are using the full reach of his authority so that law enforcement knows that this is not how you treat white skin.
Meanwhile, Stone has been charged with “witness tampering, obstruction and lying to Congress in Mueller’s investigation,” and wearing suits that would make a pimp blush. He’s pleaded not guilty to all of his charges because he knows that if his arrest has caused all this fuss, a conviction might bring rioting.
With all this injustice plaguing the rich white Republican men in this country, I wonder if white NFL owners will take a knee for Stone during the Super Bowl.