As Graham launches investigation into Bidens, video of him praising former VP goes viral
As U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham takes steps to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden’s actions in Ukraine, a video has gone viral showing Graham taking a very different tone when it comes to the Delaware Democrat.
The video, which was part of the Huffington Post’s ‘16 and President’ project from the 2016 presidential campaign trail, show’s Graham, a Republican from Seneca, South Carolina, heaping praise on the then-vice president.
“If you can’t admire Joe Biden as a person, there’s probably, you got a problem,” Graham joked on the 2016 video. “You need to do some self-evaluation, because what’s not to like?”
During the interview, Graham discussed the death of Biden’s son, Beau Biden, who passed in 2015 after a battle with a brain tumor. Graham talked about discussions he had with Biden after his son’s death and expressed sympathy for him and his family.
“He’s the nicest person I think I’ve ever met in politics,” Graham said in 2016. “He is as good of a man as God ever created.”
The video surfaced and began circulating on social media Friday, a day after Graham’s office released a letter in which the senator asked State Department officials to release documents pertaining to Biden, his son Hunter Biden and Burisma, a Ukraine-based natural gas company on whose board Hunter Biden sat.
The letter from Graham, who currently chairs the Senate’s Judiciary Committee, claims the documents will help answer questions about allegations that Joe Biden forced out a Ukrainian prosecutor who was investigating Burisma. President Donald Trump is currently facing an impeachment inquiry into whether he improperly asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate the widely disputed allegations.
Multiple national media outlets and fact checkers have reported that prosecutor Viktor Shokin was ousted as part of an initiative to take on corrupt officials in Ukraine.
Graham specifically requested documents and transcripts of communications between Joe Biden and former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in which the pair may have spoken about the investigation into Burisma. Graham also asked for documents about a meeting between Hunter Biden’s business partner Devon Archer and former Secretary of State John Kerry.
“Adam Schiff and the Democrat-controlled House Intel Committee have made it clear they will not look into the issues surrounding Hunter Biden and Burisma,” Graham’s spokesman Kevin Bishop said in an email. “Senator Graham is requesting documents which could shed additional light on these outstanding issues.”
Asked about the 2016 video in which Graham praises Biden, the senator’s spokesman did not comment.
While visiting South Carolina Friday, Biden responded to questions about Graham’s investigation. In an interview with CNN’s Don Lemon, the former vice president reiterated that there were no misdeeds to uncover.
Biden also asserted that Graham was under the heavy influence of Trump, and knew that the president’s support might prove essential in the senator’s upcoming race for re-election.
“I am disappointed, and quite frankly, I’m angered by the fact. He knows me. He knows my son. He knows there’s nothing to this,” Biden said. “Trump is now essentially holding power over him that even Ukrainians wouldn’t yield to.”
Biden said he was “embarrassed” by Graham’s actions.
“Lindsey is about to go down in a way that I think he’s going to regret his whole life,” Biden said.
Recently, Graham’s past statements, captured in videos of old interviews and speeches, have frequently resurfaced and gone viral when they contradict a statement he makes now.
This phenomenon has been happening since Graham became a staunch backer of Trump, whom Graham called a “complete idiot” during the 2016 election among other insults. Videos of Graham’s comments during the impeachment of former President Bill Clinton also frequently surface when Graham makes comments about Trump’s possible impeachment.
This story was originally published November 22, 2019 at 11:41 AM.
