Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said President Donald Trump “technically” violated the law by terminating more than a dozen inspectors general in a Friday night firing spree without notifying Congress as required by law.

Graham at first said the president acted lawfully before quickly correcting himself during a Sunday interview with NBC’s Kristen Welker on Meet the Press.

The South Carolina Republican ultimately concluded that Trump’s violation of the law was justified because he has the “authority” to make personnel decisions.

Welker said, “Let me ask you finally, on Friday night President Trump removed, as you know, 18 independent inspectors general. Just for folks, so they know what that means, these are watchdogs in key departments from Defense, to the State Department, Veterans Affairs.”

She then asked the senator, “What do you say to those who believe that President Trump is going to replace these watchdogs with loyalists?”

Graham waffled on the issue in the following exchange:

GRAHAM: You know, I’m not overly worried about that. It’s not the first time people have come in and put their team in – when you win an election, you need people in your administration that reflect your views. So I’m not really worried about that. This other stuff, you know, the security detail, that bothers me because it sends a signal to future service. Tulsi Gabbard, I’m inclined to vote for everybody, but I want to hear her thinking about Assad and Snowden. And we’ll see.

WELKER: But very quickly, the law says he’s supposed to give 30 days’ notice. He didn’t do that. Do you think he violated the law?

GRAHAM: No, he didn’t. No, well, technically, yeah. But he has the authority to do it. So I’m not, you know, losing a whole lot of sleep that he wants to change the personnel out. I just want to make sure that he gets off to a good start. I think he has. I’m very supportive of what he wants to do with America. I want to give his team more money for the border. And let me just end on this. To my Republican colleagues in the House and the Senate, if we don’t give Tom Homan more resources, all the things we’ve promised we would do during the campaign are going to fall flat. Without money, he can’t do what he promised to do.

Watch above via NBC News.

The post Lindsey Graham Waffles When Asked If Trump ‘Violated the Law’ with Mass IGs Firings: ‘No – Well, Technically, Yeah’ first appeared on Mediaite.

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