Appearing on Fox News Monday night, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham blasted NBC News for airing an interview with Brett Kavanaugh accuser Julie Swetnick despite her serious credibility problems and the network being unable to corroborate any of her claims. The lawmaker told host Sean Hannity that the accusations were “a bunch of garbage.”
Referring to NBC’s Kate Snow sitting down for an exclusive interview with Swetnick, a brief clip of which was featured on NBC Nightly News earlier that evening, Hannity declared: “NBC News just ran this interview. Not only was one person [a witness] dead, the other person said they never heard of her. She literally changed her story...”
In a sworn statement released by her Democratic attorney Michael Avenatti, Swetnick claimed that she saw Kavanaugh spike the punch at a party where girls were sexually assaulted, but as Hannity noted: “And tonight she said, ‘Well, I didn’t say that he put the drugs in the punch, but he was near the punch.’” The anchor wondered: “Why does NBC run this?”
Graham denounced the broadcast network’s behavior in covering the Kavanaugh story: “Well, NBC, here’s the biggest offense to me, they’ve been a co-conspirator in the destruction of Kavanaugh, from my point of view.”
He went on to cite another instance of NBC running with an allegation that lacked credibility:
There was an anonymous letter received by Cory Gardner, the senator from Colorado, with no return address, no information, just a letter, accusing Brett Kavanaugh of assaulting somebody in a restaurant in 1998 in Colorado. Cory hands it to the Committee, somebody on the Democratic side leaked that letter, it got on the NBC Nightly News, “The fourth allegation.”
Graham asked: “Do you think NBC would have done that if this had been a Democratic male nominee?” Hannity replied: “No. What if it was Tom Brokaw?” That of course in reference to recent sexual harassment claims made against the veteran NBC newsman, accusations which many at the network refused to believe.
Graham concluded: “All I can say is that their journalistic integrity has been destroyed over this case, regarding this case.”
Here is a transcript of the October 1 exchange on Hannity:
9:19 PM ET
(...)
SEAN HANNITY: NBC News just ran this interview [with Julie Swetnick]. Not only was one person dead, the other person said they never heard of her. She literally changed her story, including – remember, she was saying that there was systematically, you know, every other – almost every weekend, those are her words.
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM [R-SC]: I can take care of this in about 30 seconds. What reasonable person would go to a party, witness drugging of women, gang raping of women, and go back nine more times.
HANNITY: And boys lined up.
GRAHAM: Yeah. And go back nine more times and never tell anybody. It make no sense.
HANNITY: And tonight she said, “Well, I didn’t say that he put the drugs in the punch, but he was near the punch.”
GRAHAM: It’s a bunch of garbage. Well, you know, the FBI –
HANNITY: Why does NBC run this?
GRAHAM: Well, NBC, here’s the biggest offense to me, they’ve been a co-conspirator in the destruction of Kavanaugh, from my point of view. There was an anonymous letter received by Cory Gardner, the senator from Colorado, with no return address, no information, just a letter, accusing Brett Kavanaugh of assaulting somebody in a restaurant in 1998 in Colorado. Cory hands it to the Committee, somebody on the Democratic side leaked that letter, it got on the NBC Nightly News, “The fourth allegation.” Do you think they would have done that if –
HANNITY: There’s a fifth, by the way, in Rhode Island. That was debunked also.
GRAHAM: Do you think NBC would have done that if this had been a Democratic male nominee?
HANNITY: No. What if it was Tom Brokaw?
GRAHAM: All I can say is that their journalistic integrity has been destroyed over this case, regarding this case.
(...)
