Senator Lindsey Graham told Trey Gowdy and his Fox News audience:
Most Republicans, including me, believe when it comes to Trump, there is no law. It's all about getting him.
. . .
If there's a prosecution of Donald Trump for mishandling classified information, after the Clinton debacle, which you presided over and did a helluva good job, there'll be riots in the streets.
. . .
If they try to prosecute President Trump for mishandling classified information after Hillary Clinton set up a server in her basement, there literally will be riots in the street. I worry about our country.
— Video posted on Truth Social by Donald Trump
Defenders of Trump don't defend Trump's conduct; they don't examine it; they only mention it as a pivot to voicing their resentments and grievances. It's all whataboutism, distortions, fraudulent analogies, and ginned up outrage, which 'justifies' whatever stance they happen to be taking at the time. The subtext of Graham's message is: when it comes to Trump, there is no law.
Was Graham simply making a prediction? Of course not. He is sending a crisp, clear signal. This bluster is a brush back pitch, a warning: if you hold Trump accountable, there will be violence in the streets.
The senator's concern ("I worry about our country") isn't directed at the lawless Trump supporters he expects to take to the streets. He makes no plea, even halfhearted, against violence, which must be expected because of the laundry list he conjures up of past transgressions by law enforcement agencies and social media companies. The violence will come, he promises, as he pushes back against the prospect of the holding the ex-president accountable.
If they didn't lock Hillary Clinton up, or go after Hunter Biden, then they'd better not prosecute Donald Trump. This tortured equivalence generates Graham's demand: whatever Trump has done, don't touch him. Or else.
Graham is giving ammunition to the rioters he assures us will turn out. He is offering them cover to employ violence. He is deliberately stoking their rage, to prompt them to rally 'round his forecast of what's to come if Trump is indicted.
That time when Graham opposed riots in the streets
Recall the most significant riot of the Trump presidency, the one orchestrated by Trump, the one that sought to overturn the 2020 election, the one that prompted Graham to repudiate Trump on the floor of the Senate:
(Graham's remarks begin 3 minutes and 10 seconds into the video report from Fox News Channel.)
Trump and I, we've had a helluva journey. I hate it to end this way. Oh, my god, I hate it...
All I can say is, 'Count me out. Enough is enough.' I've tried to be helpful...
When it's over, it is over. It is over!
Of course it wasn't over. In no time the senior senator from South Carolina, the perennial sidekick who craves relevance, was back lapping up attention from the man who leads the Republican Party. Graham has put the rioting of January 6 out of mind. He has changed his tune about holding Trump accountable. Now he is invoking riots in the streets to ward off an indictment of the former guy.