This past Tuesday, Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) snapped and went off on Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) during the hearing for Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson, and then stormed out of the room in the wake of his own outburst.
Graham had just completed his round of questioning with Judge Jackson before he leaped back into the conversation when the Senate Judiciary Committee chair, Dick Durbin, started to address a few of the things he has spoken about during his questioning.
The entire conversation started with the comments from Jackson about her own history as a public defender, which had involved the defense of various detainees at Guantanamo Bay, and she put forth the argument that she had simply been “standing up for the constitutional value of representation.”
Durbin hopped up just after Graham ended his questioning, highlighting that there were currently 39 detainees who were still in Guantanamo Bay and that maintaining the costs of just a single one was costing the people of the United States roughly $12-13 million per year, equating along the lines of $540 million overall each year.
He continued on to state that housing these detainees out in a standard federal super-max facility in colorado would be vastly more cost-effective and that ever since mid-2009, the recidivism rate of those who were eventually set free was 5%. Graham, however, jumped in to interrupt.
“Mr. Chairman, according to the Director of National Intelligence it’s 31%. Somebody is wrong here,” interjected Graham. “If you want to talk about what I’ve said I’ll respond to what you said. If we close Gitmo and move them to Colorado do you support indefinite detention?”
“I’m giving the facts,” Durbin stated.
“The answer is no,” continued Graham.
“I just want to make sure it’s clear that 31% you referred to goes back to the year 2009,” stated Durbin.
“What does it matter what it goes back to? We had them, and they got loose and they started killing people,” Objected Graham. “If you are one of the people killed in 2005, does it matter to you when we released them?”
“I suggest the president of your own party released them, and —” exclaimed Durbin, despite the fact that four of the total five Taliban fighters that were let go by Democratic President Barack Obama, as an exchange program for U.S. Army deserter Bowe Bergdahl, are active fighters within the Taliban-controlled Afghan government.
“I’m suggesting the system has failed miserably and advocates to change the system like she was advocating would destroy our ability to protect this country. We’re at war, we’re not fighting a crime. This is not some passage of time event,” Graham went on. “As long as they are dangerous, I hope they all die in jail if they’re going to go back to kill Americans. It won’t bother me one bit if 39 of them die in prison, that’s a better outcome than letting them go. And if it costs $500 million to keep them in jail, keep them in jail, because they’re going to go back to the fight. Look at the frickin’ Afghan government, it’s made up of former detainees at Gitmo. This whole thing by the left about this war ain’t working.”
After his comments, Graham stood and then stormed out of the hearing as Durbin continued speaking, siting others who have stood in defense of the idea of allowing legal representation for Guantanamo Detainees.