Lindsey Graham Calls for Investigation Into ‘Attempted Bureaucratic Coup’ – Do You Support a Probe?

What’s the story?

• Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) has vowed to investigate allegations that top officials at the FBI and Justice Department considered an "attempted bureaucratic coup" to remove President Donald Trump from office.
• Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe said in an interview on Sunday that he and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein had talks in 2017 about invoking the 25th Amendment—a constitutional clause that allows the removal of a president if they’re deemed unfit.

“Discussion of the 25th Amendment was simply ... Rod [Rosenstein] raised the issue and discussed it with me in the context of thinking about how many other cabinet officials might support such an effort.”

What are both sides saying?

• In an interview Sunday with CBS' "Face the Nation,” Graham questioned whether the discussion of ways to remove Trump from office constituted an "attempted bureaucratic coup.”
• "It's stunning to me that one of the chief law enforcement officers of the land, the acting head of the FBI, would go on national television and say 'Oh by the way, I remember a conversation with the deputy attorney general about trying to find if we could replace the president under the 25th amendment,'" Graham said.
• "We're a democracy. People enforce the law. They can't take it into their own hands. And was this an attempted bureaucratic coup? I don't know. I don't know who is telling the truth. I know Rosenstein vehemently denied it but we’re going to get to the bottom of it.”

• Trump concurred, tweeting Monday morning:

• The White House said, “Andrew McCabe was fired in disgrace from the FBI for lying, and he opened a completely baseless investigation into the president - everyone knows he has no credibility."
• Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) said that if officials believe Trump cannot fulfill duties, they must invoke 25th Amendment.
• “My point here is that if they believe that Donald Trump cannot fulfill the obligations of his office, then they have a constitutional responsibility to invoke the 25th amendment,” Warren, a Democratic presidential candidate, said after a rally in Las Vegas.

“Their loyalty under law is not to him personally. It is to the Constitution of the United States and to the people of United States.”

What do you think?

Was discussing removing the president an “attempted bureaucratic coup”? Do you support a probe into the matter? Take action and tell your reps, then share your thoughts below.

—Josh Herman