GOP complains Lindsey Graham didn't get enough air time to attack FBI

The Trump campaign on Wednesday issued a statement panning the media for not airing Sen. Lindsey Graham’s (R-SC) opening statement at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing with the Department of Justice inspector general, calling it “censorship.”

Graham was leading a hearing with the inspector general, who issued a report saying that the Russia investigation into Trump was legitimate, and that Trump and his campaign weren’t spied on as Trump has claimed.

Trump, however, has falsely claimed the report vindicates his belief that he was the target of a politically biased “deep state.”

And Graham attempted to back up Trump’s false claims at Wednesday’s hearing — which is likely why Trump and his GOP allies wanted Graham’s statement aired on every cable network.

“After airing every last second of Democrats’ opening statements plus Democrat staffers talking to each other throughout six extremely boring impeachment hearings, CNN refused to air Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham’s opening statement in the hearing on the IG report today,” the Trump campaign wrote in the email.

The campaign’s statement suggests it believes a hearing about an inspector general report is as important as the impeachment proceedings.

Other Republicans also complained that the IG hearing was not shown wall-to-wall on television.

“CNN is not taking the Senate Horowitz hearing live. Unbelievable,” Ari Fleischer, who served as press secretary under former President George W. Bush, tweeted. “A perfect example of how bias works. It’s not just what they cover. It’s what they don’t cover.”

Republican National Committee Chair Ronna Romney McDaniel echoed those sentiments.

“CNN aired everything Schiff & Nadler had to say. Why aren’t they showing @LindseyGrahamSC? Is it because the facts of how the FBI mistreated @realDonaldTrump contradict their coverage over the last 3 years?” McDaniel tweeted.

In fact, the inspector general testified the opposite and said that his office is investigating whether Hillary Clinton was the target of political bias against her from certain FBI offices during the 2016 campaign.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.