Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) offered some pushback against Donald Trump’s rhetoric about Antifa during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing before praising former President Barack Obama’s efforts at police reform.
Trump has been trying to scapegoat anti-fascists as the cause of all the violence and looting at protests across the country, even going so far as to declare that they are “terrorists” and threatening to send the military in to take them out.
During the hearing, Graham pushed back on that idea and noted that all it takes is one person to throw a rock through a window to cause a snowballing effect that draws others to join in.
“Antifa was not around in 1968 that I know of,” he said in reference to the 1968 riots. Unlike Trump, Graham went on to focus on dealing with the root cause of the protests, which is police brutality.
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“The overwhelming issue for us is after you stop the rioting, which we will, what are you going to do about the problem that led to the protest?” he asked.
He then set a hearing to investigate and examine the issues at the heart of these protests, but then went on to do something unexpected by offering praise of the Obama administration.
“I think this committee has a unique opportunity to build on some things that the Obama administration did and ask ourselves some hard questions,” he said.
Here’s the video:
As you may recall, Trump and many Republicans have frequently accused Obama of being anti-police. So, it’s surprising that Graham would offer praise of Obama for developing police reforms.
As Trump hid in his White House bunker a couple of nights ago, Obama was busy penning a strategy to address the concerns of protesters. Part of that involved building upon the reforms developed by his administration in an effort to prevent police brutality.
The fact that Graham agrees is interesting, and will likely draw a temper tantrum from Trump when he finds out about it.
Featured image via screen capture
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