Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) has been an outspoken defender of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, but he hasn't always been as receptive to judges who lie under oath.
In 1999, then-Congressman Graham argued on the House floor that judges who are perjurers deserved to be impeached.
“I have argued to you that when you found that a judge was a perjurer, you couldn’t in good conscience send him back in a courtroom because everybody that came in that courtroom thereafter would have a real serious doubt,” Graham said at the time.
But Graham has not condemned the alleged lies that Kavanaugh told during his testimony refuting sexual assault charges.
In fact, the South Carolina Republican doubled down on his support of Kavanaugh while appearing on Fox News on Monday. The senator argued that President Donald Trump should renominate Kavanaugh to the court even if he is rejected by a vote of the Senate.
“I would appeal the verdict of the Senate to the ballot box,” Graham said. “This good man should not be destroyed. If you legitimize this process by one vote short, woe be unto the next person. I’d hate to be the next person nominated. I would feel horrible that we destroyed Kavanaugh."
Graham added: "I’d renominate him and I’d take this case to the American people. I’d ask voters in Indiana and Missouri and North Dakota and other places where Trump won, saying who he would nominate if he got to be president, and see if the voters would want to appeal the verdict of their senator.”
Watch the 1999 video of Graham below.
