Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said Sunday that Lara Trump stands to benefit from Donald Trump’s acquittal in the Senate’s impeachment trial, The Hill reported.
Lara Trump, the former president’s daughter-in-law, has purportedly expressed interest in running for Senate in North Carolina and replacing GOP Sen. Richard Burr, who currently represents the state and is expected to retire in 2022.
Speaking with host Chris Wallace, Graham said that Burr’s decision to vote to convict Trump on a charge of inciting an insurrection against the U.S. government has opened the door for Lara Trump to take his seat.
“The biggest winner of this whole impeachment trial is Lara Trump,” Graham began.
“My dear friend Richard Burr, who I like and have been friends to a long time, just made Lara Trump almost the certain nominee for the Senate seat in North Carolina to replace him if she runs, and I’ll certainly be behind her because she represents the future of the Republican Party.”
As The Hill noted, polling suggests that Lara Trump — who worked on her father-in-law’s 2016 and 2020 campaigns — would have a good chance of filling Burr’s vacant seat in 2022.
Along with six other Republicans, Burr voted to convict the former president, claiming that evidence presented by House impeachment managers clearly showed he was guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors.
The senator was immediately condemned over his vote. His state’s GOP accused him of refusing to defend the Constitution and described his vote as “shocking and disappointing.”
Senators Mitt Romney of Utah, Ben Sasse of Nebraska, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana also voted to convict the former commander-in-chief.
Graham also told Wallace that in impeaching Trump, the U.S. Congress set a dangerous precedent, by which Democratic politicians such as Vice President Kamala Harris can be removed from office.
Lindsey Graham suggests Kamala Harris will be impeached if Republicans take back the House next year pic.twitter.com/J68Or4k1la
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 14, 2021
Graham argued that Harris could also be held accountable for inciting violence, given that she expressed support for this summer’s Black Lives Matter protests against police brutality and allegedly worked to help some of the rioters avoid prosecution.
“I don’t know how Kamala Harris doesn’t get impeached if the Republicans take over the House, because she actually bailed out rioters, and one of the rioters went back to the streets and broke somebody’s head open,” he said.
As reported by The Inquisitr , although all but six Republican senators voted to acquit Trump, some of them have already sought to distance themselves from him.
