A “Meet the Press” interview with Sen. Lindsey Graham turned tense on Sunday when host Kristen Welker asked if the South Carolina Republican was trying to “rewrite history to distract from the Epstein matter” in his push to get a special counsel to probe whether Obama or his top officials “manipulated the U.S. national security apparatus for a political outcome.”
“This is new evidence,” Graham insisted of the latest findings released from DNI Tulsi Gabbard showing how the Obama administration created a false intelligence assessment claiming Vladimir Putin wanted to help Trump’s election chances.
“This is something I didn't know, you didn't know, that in 2016, Obama suggested ‘I don't like the outcome that there's no evidence Russia was involved.’ Well, now we all say Russia was involved. But in 2016, they said Russia wasn't involved. What the hell happened?”
Welker pushed back, bringing up the statement from former President Obama’s spokesperson vehemently denying he requested a new intelligence assessment, claiming the allegations are “outrageous” and a “weak attempt at distraction.”
The host said she spoke with Susan Miller, a former senior CIA officer who helped oversee the 2017 intelligence assessment on Russian collusion, who also disputed that anyone in the Obama administration asked them to sway their investigation.
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And that’s when things heated up between the two.
KRISTEN WELKER: Are you trying to...rewrite history to distract from the Epstein matter, Senator?
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM: No. I am trying to let you know and the media know that we found something we didn't know before. At the end of the day, I'm not calling for prosecution against President Obama for treason. But, I am calling for an investigation. Mr. Mueller also said there was no credible evidence that President Trump colluded with the Russians. For years, and months, and days, and weeks, people had their lives turned upside down, chasing the Mueller narrative that Trump was in bed with the Russians, that the Trump campaign was colluding with the Russians. The only people colluding with the Russians were the Hillary Clinton campaign and Christopher Steele manufacturing a document to get warrants against Carter Page, based on lies and falsehoods. So, yeah, I'm very familiar with it. What you don't seem to acknowledge is there's something new being found. Rather than reinventing the wheel here, let's go back to a special counsel model to look at this something new.
KRISTEN WELKER: But, Senator–
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM: The something new is statements by President Obama, "I don't like your analysis. Russia wasn't involved here," in 2016.
KRISTEN WELKER: Senator, you're saying there's something new. This report goes back to 2020. It's five years old. There's actually nothing new in this report and nothing that changes anything--
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM: The evidence that she turned over–
KRISTEN WELKER: I want to talk about Gaza, Senator.
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM: –is new to me.
KRISTEN WELKER: Senator–
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM: It's new to me.
KRISTEN WELKER: But, Senator–
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM: You're trying to sweep this stuff under the rug. And that's not right. (Transcript via NBC)
WATCH as Sen. Lindsey Graham calls out Kristen Welker's firefighting of the Russia Hoax Doc Drop: "You're trying to sweep this stuff under the rug and that's not right." pic.twitter.com/hinQTe5DYn
— Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) July 27, 2025
