U-S Senator Lindsey Graham met a rambunctious crowd at a Clemson University auditorium on Saturday. The room overflowed with constituents from young children to elderly veterans. This is one of the few times since President Trump's election Graham has met with constituents in his home state.
He began the event by addressing President Trump's allegations Saturday morning on Twitter that former President Obama illegally wiretapped phone lines at Trump Tower during the campaign, citing no evidence. The former Director of National Intelligence denied there was a court order allowing this over the weekend.
Graham said it's his responsibility as a U-S Senator to get to the bottom of this: "if the former President of the United States was able to obtain a warrant lawfully to monitor Trump's campaign for violating law, that would be the biggest scandal since Watergate," says Graham.
Graham also said if the allegations aren't true that could a scandal in itself. His staff then began reading constituent questions. The Senator responded to a handful of hot-button issues including his refusal to force the President to release his tax returns. "I will do that when I believe there's a reason to do that," Graham says.
Another answer that got a loud response was when Graham said he supports the President's call to increase military spending. "If you don't see the need to increase our military, you're living in a fantasy land," Graham says.
Many of the Senator's responses were drowned out by an increasingly rowdy audience. Wanda Thompson was in the crowd -- she's a critic of Lindsey Graham.
Thompson didn't get the answers she came for, but felt the conservation was valuable. She says, "I think people needed the dialogue [and] needed to see he would be here. So that was a good thing."
Another constituent, Hank Hinnant, has been a past supporter of Graham. He felt the overly aggressive crowd made it difficult for the Senator to fully explain his positions: "so I don't really know that today accomplished very much," says Hinnant.
Graham ended the 90 minute Town Hall by saying he supports the President on many issues, but will continue to criticize him when necessary.