Sen. Lindsey Graham appeared on Newsmax and chastised President Joe Biden for using hyperbole to misrepresent comments made by the South Carolina Republican.
Graham on Sunday said that there will be "riots in the streets" if former President Donald Trump is prosecuted for his handling of classified materials discovered during the FBI raid at Mar-a-Lago.
Biden, while appearing Tuesday before a partisan crowd in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, exaggerated Graham's comments by saying people could turn on a television and see a senior senator insisting "if such and such happens, there'll be blood in the street."
"Let me tell you what the hell's going on President Biden, our border is broken – you should go to the border before … anytime soon. Go to the border, you'd learn a lot if you went," Graham told host Eric Bolling on "Eric Bolling The Balance."
"Terrorism is on the rise, right? You would learn a lot if you'd listen to the generals. Inflation is through the roof, and crime is rampant. So, if you want to talk to someone supporting political violence, I'm not the guy. I reject political violence."
Graham pointed out that he has criticized violence that included actions at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, riots fueled by Black Lives Matter, the burning of the Portland, Oregon, courthouse, and threats made against Supreme Court justices.
"If you want to talk to somebody about supporting political violence, President Biden, talk to your vice president [Kamala Harris] whose office raised money to bail out rioters who hit cops in the head and went back to breaking the law," Graham told Bolling.
The senator proceeded to say that he was tired of the double standard being exhibited by the Department of Justice, FBI, and the mainstream media.
"The idea that President Trump would be mishandling classified information after the Hillary Clinton debacle makes no sense to me," Graham told Bolling. "That's the road they are trying to go down.
"You see major newspapers talking about how the Trump case is different from the Clinton case, well how do they know? The people in charge of this investigation are leaking information to The Washington Post, The New York Times, they're creating the narrative that won't withstand scrutiny just like the Russian hoax."
Graham also took aim at DOJ and FBI leadership.
"I am really tired living in a country where the FBI tells Facebook [that] Hunter Biden's laptop is Russian disinformation, and the same group lied to the FISA court to get a warrant against Carter Page, and what happens to the two guys in charge of that investigation? ... They're now on MSNBC and CNN as analysts," Graham said. "I think most conservative Republicans are tired as hell of this double standard.
"The average FBI agent, man or woman, is an American hero in my mind. Professionals in the Department of Justice are good people, but you have political biased people inside these agencies that need to be rooted out.
"I am here to tell President Biden that I reject violence, but I sure as hell reject the Department of Justice's and FBI's double standard."
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