Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) came to President Donald Trump’s defense on Sunday on “Face the Nation,” supporting his decision to remove Alexander Vindman from his post at the NSC. Vindman was not “fired” but reassigned, reportedly to the Pentagon.

Graham said he didn’t think that Vindman “could be effective.”

Indeed, it would be virtually impossible to trust him and a president is entitled to have advisers he can trust. The NSC serves at the pleasure of the president.

Graham said he’s observed how people’s political leanings have influenced things.

.@LindseyGrahamSC on Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman's ouster from the White House: "I think his reassignment was justified. I don't think he could be effective as the NSC." https://t.co/Bu1zxgliQV pic.twitter.com/p1wsI0Sojd

— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) February 9, 2020

From Washington Times:

“As much as I support our military people telling the truth when asked — it’s important they do — what have I learned in the last two years? CIA agents, Department of State, Department of Justice lawyers, FBI agents have a political agenda and they acted on it,” Mr. Graham, a former military lawyer, told CBS.

Mr. Graham said they “took the law in their own hands” in probing the Trump campaign in 2016 with the help of the court set up under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

Graham said he wanted to ask Vindman more about whether he leaked to the whistleblower, what he did with the information on the phone call and if his political leanings influenced what he was doing.

From Washington Examiner:

“He was not allowed to be asked questions about his connections to the alleged whistleblower,” Graham said of Vindman’s testimony, later continuing. “They did not allow Republicans to go down that road … People in his chain of command have been suspicious of him regarding his political point of view.”

During the impeachment proceedings in the House, Vindman testified that he did speak to State Department official George Kent and one other person in the intelligence community about the call but Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) refused to allow Republicans to continue that line of questioning claiming they were trying to out the whistleblower. Which of course, was odd since both claimed they didn’t know who the whistleblower was. How could Schiff say that answering the question would be “trying to out the whistleblower” unless he knew who the whistleblower was?

During the interview, you could see Margaret Brennan start to get agitated when Graham persisted and said they were going to continue to look into the question to the whistleblower and political agendas.

Folks on the left again flipped out that Graham would dare want to question Vindman. Josh Marshall, who founded TPM, falsely characterized what he said, claiming that Graham said Vindman was part of a “broader plot,” when Graham made no such conclusion.

Asked whether the summary firing of LTC Alexander Vindman was justified Graham says Vindman was part of broader plot against President Trump by FBI Agents, CIA Agents and DOJ Lawyers. pic.twitter.com/AwgimKjlky

— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) February 9, 2020