The Washington Post's editorial board slammed Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., for warning of riots if the Justice Department prosecutes former President Donald Trump over documents seized during the FBI raid at Mar-a-Lago.
Graham on Sunday told Fox News that "if they tried to prosecute President Trump for mishandling classified information after Hillary Clinton set up a server in her basement, there literally will be riots in the street. I worry about the country."
The Post's editorial board responded by scolding Graham.
"There is no excuse for this irresponsible rhetoric, which not only invites violence but also defies democratic norms," the Post's board wrote in a Monday opinion column.
The board proceeded to ridicule Graham for implying that there's no plausible case against Trump, and for comparing Trump's situation to Clinton's.
"This has been a continuing suggestion from the right wing, usually paired with a comparison to the investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server while secretary of state," the Post's board wrote.
"Yet already, differences between these cases are apparent, and more still could emerge: from the number of documents improperly kept, to the intentions behind keeping them, to the harm that holding this material could have done to national security. The possibility of obstructive behavior mentioned in the FBI affidavit unsealed last week can't be discounted."
A Graham spokesman told the Post that the senator simply was "predicting/forecasting what he thinks will happen."
"But some predictions are also threats," the editorial board insisted. "And in this case, giving a forecast on national television might make it more likely that this vision of the future comes to pass."
The Post's editorial board also chastised Trump for posting the clip of Graham's interview on Truth Social, which, the newspaper said, the former president has "peppered with myriad ravings about the search of his property of late."
The left-leaning newspaper then suggested that Trump's supporters could "interpret a leader's words as a call to arms — and then action."
"By talking about the possibility of violence without condemning it, Mr. Trump's sympathizers play a game of intimidation: daring Attorney General Merrick Garland to bring a case and face the consequences," the Post's editorial board wrote.
"As wary as Mr. Garland and his colleagues should be of overusing their power in tumultuous times, federal prosecutors must not allow themselves to be bullied out of doing their jobs."
The opinion column closed taking another shot at Graham.
"'I worry about our country,' Mr. Graham said at the end of Sunday's interview," the Post editorial board wrote. "His reckless words and others like them are cause for the greatest concern."
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