Lindsey Graham Clashes With NBC Over Gabbard’s Explosive Russiagate Claims

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., clashed with NBC’s Meet the Press host Kristen Welker on Sunday over bombshell allegations from Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who claims that former President Barack Obama directed intelligence agencies to manipulate their assessment of Russian interference in the 2016 election.

“You’re trying to sweep this stuff under the rug, and that’s not right!” Graham shot back after Welker accused Republicans of distracting from the ongoing Epstein controversy by reviving Russiagate claims.

Gabbard has released declassified documents suggesting that U.S. intelligence agencies originally concluded Russia was not attempting to help Donald Trump win the presidency. She alleges Obama ordered a rewrite of the assessment to create the opposite narrative. “The treasonous conspiracy that we have now released to the American people the complicity, the deflection, and the silence of politicians, of the mainstream media, and of those directly implicated into this speaks volumes,” Gabbard told Fox & Friends.

President Trump has called for “very severe consequences” for Obama and others if these claims are confirmed. Obama’s office quickly issued a rare statement dismissing the allegations as “bizarre” and “ridiculous,” while citing a 2020 bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee report that affirmed Russia tried to influence the election but did not alter votes.

Welker attempted to counter Graham by referencing statements from Republican former CIA officer Susan Miller, as well as findings from Trump-appointed special counsel John Durham in 2023, which concluded there was insufficient evidence of political interference in the original probe. She also played a 2017 clip of Graham saying Russia interfered to “embarrass Hillary Clinton.”

Graham was undeterred “The Mueller investigation was crooked and rotten to the core. The Washington Post and the New York Times got a Pulitzer Prize for reporting on Trump's campaign's relationship with Russia. It was all B.S.,” he said. “For years, people’s lives were turned upside down chasing this false narrative.”

While Graham stopped short of calling for Obama’s prosecution, he insisted that a new special counsel should investigate whether the former president pressured intelligence agencies to rewrite their assessment. “This report contains information we have never seen before. It deserves a serious investigation,” he said.

The new allegations have reignited partisan tensions over Russiagate, with Democrats portraying the claims as a distraction while Republicans argue it is evidence of a political cover-up. “For years, the Left smeared Trump with fabricated allegations,” Graham said. “Now, when we have evidence that the intelligence community may have been weaponized, the media wants to ignore it.”

As the debate intensifies, the Trump administration has signaled its willingness to release additional declassified documents that could shed light on the alleged manipulation.

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