Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), sat down with Brian Kilmeade and explained why he believes President Trump’s speech on Venezuela and the dangers of socialism was his Ronald Reagan moment.
On the upcoming summit with Kim Jong-un, Graham said President Trump is being a strong commander-in-chief by working North Korea on eliminating their nuclear capabilities. Graham also spoke about Europeans making a bad bet by siding with President Obama on Iran and President Trump making a brilliant decision by leaving 200 peacekeeping troops in Syria.
Plus, Senator Graham on why he believes the Mueller report will not show any conspiracy between President Trump and Russia and the Senate having enough votes to sustain a Presidential veto on the House resolution against declaring a national emergency at the border.
Watch here:
BRIAN KILMEADE, FOX NEWS RADIO ANCHOR: Senator at the very least just in the big picture, I don’t think you have any time to watch a T.V. series. It’s great to see you but you are never sitting in one place, let alone to watch television.
SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: Yes, call me when North Korea is over and we’ll talk about this.
KILMEADE: Then we’ll talk about Empire, talk about empires.
GRAHAM: There you go.
KILMEADE: Just real quick, is amazing to you that instead of just being OK, I’m going to vote for Cary or Bush, Clinton or Bush, Reagan or Mondale, now all of a sudden it’s the President of the Unite States, don’t wear his hat, don’t wear his shirt or else you might have a justification to being hit, punched or ridiculed or thrown out of class. What happened?
GRAHAM: I don’t know, I just think the divide in the country is real, it was before Trump came. It’s happening really all over the world quite frankly. There’s a breakdown of sort of the traditional order and we’ll get through it. The bottom line, the President’s done a good job. Our economy is humming, our military is stronger, our enemies are on the run and we’re more reliable friend. So, from the big picture point of view, we got conservative judges, I am very pleased.
KILMEADE: Yes, well we have a lot to discuss. First off on Venezuela…
GRAHAM: Right.
KILMEADE: …I know that hasn’t been exactly what you’ve been focusing on, John Bolton has led the charge, have you been?
GRAHAM: Well but John Bolton and the President – President’s speech on Venezuela a few days ago was the Reagan moment for him.
KILMEADE: In Miami?
GRAHAM: Yes, this was the best speech that Donald Trump has given. It was coherent in terms of what is deeply flawed about socialism, it was a challenge to Venezuela, to Cuba and Nicaragua that we’re coming after you and ideology in our backyard. And he sides with the people of Venezuela, this was his tear down this wall moment.
KILMEADE: In fact, here’s a little of that speech.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And so as the United States stands up for democracy in Venezuela we reaffirm the solidarity with the long suffering people of Cuba and Nicaragua and people everywhere living under socialist and communist regimes. And to those were tried to impose socialism on the United States, we again deliver a very simple message, America will never be a socialist country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KILMEADE: The crowd roars but in the next 24 hours, we understand you might not even know this, this just came across, on the Brazilian – Venezuelan border they made an effort to the civilians to keep it open and they open up fire and two are dead now right in that region. They’re just trying to bring in aid not guns, aid.
GRAHAM: Well, so Turkey and a few other countries are supporting Maduro…
KILMEADE: One dead, 12 injured sir.
GRAHAM: …so, what’s happening here is a confrontation from – between the Venezuelan people and their family members and the Maduro regime to the military who shoots these people, you’re making yourself war criminals.
KILMEADE: We, over the next 24 hours Guido is going to led a caravan, we understand, I know you hate that word.
GRAHAM: Yes.
KILMEADE: Caravan into that country. If they start shooting, don’t you feel as though we’re under pressure to aid in some way?
GRAHAM: There’ll come a point where stability in our backyard will require us to act. I have not been supportive of sending troops into Venezuela unless you have a good reason. What would be a good reason? When law and order completely breaks down, you’ve had a couple million people, I think three million people flee the country, is putting a lot of pressure on our allies in the region, is creating a national security threat for us, this guy’s not legitimate in the eyes of his own people and we need order rather than chaos and I’m hoping that the military will side with the people and reject Maduro. I’ve never been more proud of the President standing up for democracy, standing by the Venezuelan people. This truly was a Ronald Reagan moment.
KILMEADE: I want you to hear what Bernie Sanders thinks about what you’re doing there, cut 35.
(BEING VIDEO CLIP)
UNKNOWN MALE: You can see the one why though the legitimate precedent of Venezuela?
SENATOR BERNIE SANDERS: No.
UNKNOWN MALE: Is Nicaragua (inaudible) senator for you and should he go?
SANDERS: I think clearly he has been very, very abusive, that is a decision of the Venezuelan people. So, I think (inaudible) there’s got to be a free and fair election.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KILMEADE: But the bottom line is there’s never going to be a free and fair election with Maduro in charge.
GRAHAM: So that’s the point, so the assembly there basically invokes power under the constitution to reject Maduro as the leader of Venezuela. Trump has led the free world pretty much in unison to come out for the other guy, Guaido, what’s his name? Gauido?
KILMEADE: Guaido.
GRAHAM: Guaido, so….
KILMEADE: And Maduro is the guy, the bus driver.
GRAHAM: Yes, so the bottom line is the people supporting Maduro are on the wrong side of history. I support the President. This weekend could be outcome determative, if there’s a whole sale assault on these people peacefully protesting, then all bets may be off as to what the United States does.
KILMEADE: And here’s the problem, here’s the interesting thing I think, is that the President of the United States is putting up pressure there and guess who loses? Russia. Russia has influence in that area, they’re able to bring some ships into that area…
GRAHAM: China.
KILMEADE: …and Iran.
GRAHAM: China, Russian, Iran but Russia is heavily invested and Bernie, here’s the point, I mean I like Bernie personally but at the end of the day this is not a hard call. If you believe in freedom and the concept to freedom, you have to come out against Maduro because he has been a ruthless thug. Cuba, Nicaragua are dictatorships in our own backyard and Trump has basically said, not only will socialism not rise in America, I will stamp it out here. I’m going to go after it in our own backyard, which was music to my ears.
KILMEADE: OK, before I get generally in the world’s view of America because you just got back Eunuch, I got to ask you about the – Russia posted this story and they talked about progress being made in the North Korean front and I couldn’t believe it. I had to keep checking who’s writing this. And it says Kim took decisive steps in 2018 to initiate improve relations with South Korea and United States as well as China and they say they need to put into prospective the three requisite components of North Korea nuclear arsenal. The bomb field, the weaponization in the delivery systems, when it comes to bomb fields and delivery systems, they’ve actually decreased their use right now. And the rhetoric has been noticeably toned down.
GRAHAM: The question is why? Why is Kim talking to Trump? Why did he meet with the South Korean President? Why did they shake hands and jump across the border? Because I think Kim has been put on notice by Trump that you’re behavior is unacceptable, we can not accept a nuclear armed North Korea that can hit American with an ICBM but we don’t want a war, the choice is yours. So, we’re now talking because Kim is quite frankly has been afraid of Trump, now he’s got a relationship with Trump and the goal is to get them to give up their nuclear weapons to make the world a safer place. Why is the Taliban at the table in Afghanistan? Because we changed the rules of engagement. How did we destroy the Calafate? Because Trump took the gloves off. President Trump has been a very strong commander in chief and it is yielding dividends.
KILMEADE: All right, let’s talk about what you found in Eunuch. I’ll tell you what the reporting says, the reporting says that America was not – was ridiculed by Merkel publically and maybe privately.
GRAHAM: Yes, right.
KILMEADE: We’re looked down as somebody who’s relinquishing our leadership in the world, do they have a point?
GRAHAM: No, not really. So, Reagan was despised by the Europeans, the populations. Obama was loved, Obama was weak and Merkel’s speech was sort of cheap politics. I actually like Merkel, she’s done a good job in many ways. But the reason…
KILMEADE: She’s going out bitter.
GRAHAM: Yes, well she’s going out. And why is she going out? She stood with Obama to empower the Iranian regime, with a deal where they would get $150 billion to put their nuclear program under more transparent regime. They took the $150 billon, they dismembered the Mideast, Syria became hell on earth. The millions of people that fled the Iranian terror, a lot of them came to Germany. Standing with Obama, helping the Ayatollah was her down fall. She’s taking a shot at Trump because it’s easy politics but she needs to look in the mirror as to why her chancellorship has come to an end. She sided with Obama to help the Ayatollah, not help the Iranian people. The millions of people who fled in Syria were a victim of a decision by Obama and others to care more about the nuclear agreement in Iran than the people of Syria.
KILMEADE: And we know France Will Macron, there’s so much unrest at home he couldn’t even go.
GRAHAM: Right.
KILMEADE: And we know that Britain right now with Theresa May, this breaks a situation could not have been going worse.
GRAHAM: All the European’s made a bad bet, they sided with Obama. Obama’s goal was to get a nuclear agreement with the Iranian regime and he ignored all the terrorism coming out of Tehran. As a result of that, a side was on the ropes, Obama gave him a pass, Iran to has blind(ph), Russia came in to prop a side up and the rest is history.
KILMEADE: How did Secretary Defense Shanahan do over there?
GRAHAM: He’s fine, I mean we…
KILMEADE: But do you think he’s the right guy? He’s a Boeing executive.
GRAHAM: Well, time will tell. I like him, we’re going to meet next week, we need a permanent Secretary of Defense but the decision to leave a following force of 200 will attract a lot of Europeans to create a safe zone between Turkey and the Kurds, who’ve helped us, who will make sure ISIS doesn’t come back and Iran will never come in and take their oil. This was a brilliant decision by the President.
KILMEADE: All right, let’s talk about the Mueller report. What have you heard about it as Chairman of Judiciary in the Senate?
GRAHAM: You know, I haven’t heard any details. I hear it’s coming soon, here’s the one thing….
KILMEADE: Do you know what it’s going to look like?
GRAHAM: No, but as a prosecutor here’s what I think, if there was conspiracy between the Trump campaign and the Russians we would have known about it by now. No one’s been charged with conspiring to work with the Russians to help the Trump campaign. All the crimes have been processed crimes, so I believe if there were an collusion conspiracy, we would have known it by now and at the end of the day the Mueller report is going to find no conspiracy collusion between Trump and the Russians and the rest will be just noise.
KILMEADE: Senator Burr made a statement a couple weeks ago, said none of us found anything yet, (inaudible) disagree.
GRAHAM: I disagree.
KILMEADE: What do you mean disagree, I thought this was a bipartisan committee that is supposed to be the model to all to learn from?
GRAHAM: He said there is no direct evidence of – they want it to be, but there is no evidence that I’ve seen. And Mueller to me would have done something differently if there had been collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians. He would have charged somebody with the underlying conspiracy. The fact that no one’s been charged with conspiring, working with the Russians to use the data they stole from the DNC to benefit Trump says all I need to know about what this report is going to find.
KILMEADE: And I understand too, that it won’t stop any investigation. So, I know you got a run soon but I got to bring up a couple more topics. The House is going to vote on a resolution against the national emergency.
GRAHAM: Right.
KILMEADE: And the Senate’s going to get the same vote. There’s a fear amongst republicans that the lot are very unhappy with the President for making this move including Senator Susan Collins and I could go Senator Tillis and others.
GRAHAM: A lot of people.
KILMEADE: Where do you think the numbers are going to be in terms of dissatisfaction when it comes to the Senate?
GRAHAM: Well, we will have enough to sustain President’s veto and here’s why I support President Trump. I work with the Obama administration on a comprehensive immigration proposal, $44 billion for border security, $9 billion for a barrier, not one democrat suggested it was manufactured crisis. So, the President’s getting $1.38 billion for a wall, the democrats are treating him differently than they did Obama and Bush. The President has no choice, he sent troops to the border, Obama sent troops, Bush sent troops, what’s the difference a troop being sent to the border and building the barrier while they’re there, I support the President, he’s going to win at the end of the day. I know some republicans are concerned about the precedent it will set but here’s what I’m concerned about, a broken border, I’m worried about what is going to happen now, not what some democrat may do later.
KILMEADE: Do you have the same concern of Elijah Cummings about a relationship between the Saudi’s nuclear sales and this administration?
GRAHAM: I don’t know where that’s going…
KILMEADE: Did you hear anything about it?
GRAHAM: Not really, I just know that Saudi Arabia’s a strategic ally but MVS has turned out to be kind of an unreliable person. And we need to refigure – reconfigure our relationship with Saudi Arabia.
KILMEADE: You do feel that way?
GRAHAM: I do.
KILMEADE: But then what are you going to use to counter Iran? There’s no other force.
GRAHAM: If it weren’t for us, name one Saudi that’s in a fight against Iran? The hoodies have been kicking the Saudi military. You know the arms sales – bottom line is if it weren’t for us they’d be speaking Farsi. And what are they going to do? Not sale oil, they’ll starve, so I’m over the belief that people need us for more than we need them.
KILMEADE: Overall with the President, the President that took over two years ago and the President that’s today.
GRAHAM: He’s become a very good Reagan like commander in chief, the economy is strong because of the policies of deregulating and cutting taxes. Our foreign policy is sharp, is everything Obama wasn’t. I like what I see, I’m all in for 2020 from a judicial point of view, the judges he’s picked have been top notch. If you’re conservative you’ve got to be very pleased.
KILMEADE: Right.
GRAHAM: I didn’t know what I was getting with Trump to be honest with you, I could not be more pleased.
KILMEADE: You guys were fighting like crazy in the beginning.
GRAHAM: Like crazy.
KILMEADE: He gave out your phone number and by the way you want six more years too right?
GRAHAM: Yes, without a doubt, I like where we’re headed as a nation, keep it up Mr. President.
KILMEADE: All right, Senator Lindsey Graham I’ve been told by people more powerful than you that you have to go after one long segment.
GRAHAM: I got to go raise money, yes.
KILMEADE: Right, you got to go raise money.
GRAHAM: Send money.
KILMEADE: All right, listen 1-866-408-7669, the Brian Kilmeade Show, thanks Senator, always great.
GRAHAM: Thanks.
