Lindsey Graham undercuts Trump over his 'mistake' putting officials' lives at risk

Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) called on the Senate to investigate the "mistake" made when Donald Trump pulled the security details of former administration officials whose lives are still in danger.

During the first week of his second term, Trump withdrew secret service protection from his former National Security Adviser John Bolton, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and his aide Brian Hook, who have all been targeted for assassination by Iran. Trump also revoked security for Dr. Anthony Fauci, who has been targeted by Trump's own supporters for decisions made during the Covid pandemic.

Graham said on CNN's State of the Union Sunday that he spoke about the dangers with Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR), the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

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"He said he had a briefing and he asked the briefers, 'If it were you or your family, would you think you deserve a detail?' And they said, 'Yes.' You know, whether you like Bolton or anybody else, we need to make sure that if you serve in our government and you take on foreign power at the request of the administration, that we do not leave you hanging," Graham said.

"So, they should get the security back?" asked Dana Bash.

"Yeah, I think we need, the Senate needs to look at what happened and sit down and figure out what's the best way forward," Graham said.

He continued, "Everybody doesn't deserve a detail all their life. it needs to be 'as needed.' But what Senator Cotton told me, the threats seem to be real against these individuals, and I don't want to leave them hanging. It makes it hard to recruit people in the future. And, you know, if something happened to these people and, you know, President Trump needs to think about getting people to serve in the future, owning that decision."

So, just to put a finer point on it, it was a mistake," Bash pressed the conservative lawmaker.

"Yeah. If the the intel is what Senator Cotton said, I think we should keep the details."

Watch the clip below via CNN or at the link.