Sen. Lindsey Graham Threatens Obama With Impeachment For Trying To Close GITMO

Last updated on June 5th, 2014 at 11:39 pm

President Obama has been trying to close GITMO for years, but Sen. Lindsey Graham warned the president that Republicans will impeach him if he releases any more prisoners or tries to close the prison.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) warned President Obama that if he tries to shut down the prison at Guantanamo Bay. Graham told reporters, “It’s going to be impossible for them to flow prisoners out of Gitmo now without a huge backlash. There will be people on our side calling for his impeachment if he did that.”

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The real reason why Republicans are upset is beginning to make itself clear. Republicans are worried that Obama’s actions could be signaling the closure of GITMO. If the negotiated release works, the Republican rationale for keeping GITMO open will be completely destroyed. A poll last year revealed that a slim majority of Americans (54%) favor keeping GITMO open, but if Republicans want to see those numbers vanish, all they have to do is impeach President Obama.

By the way, the “backlash” has been limited to partisan Republicans who are trying to gin up a scandal over the negotiated release of Bowe Bergdahl. The rest of the country isn’t near as up in arms as Republicans and their media outlets are.

Lindsey Graham has been acting like a tea party lunatic for the last several months because he still is not avoiding a runoff in the South Carolina Republican Senate primary. A new poll released today has Graham at 49%, so consider his comments about impeaching Obama his big push to get over the 50% threshold and avoid a runoff.

It isn’t surprising that Republicans would use the Bergdahl release as their latest reason to threaten President Obama with impeachment. This is where Republicans want to go with it. They are dying to impeach the president.

Graham was the prosecutor during the Clinton impeachment trial. He and his party learned nothing from the mistakes of the 1990s. It looks like they are steaming forward in an attempt to repeat history by making a second term president more popular.

Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and  Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association