NBC’s Kristen Welker Firefights the Russia Hoax Doc Drop, Gets SHUT DOWN by Sen. Graham

Jorge Bonilla
July 27th, 2025 4:06 PM

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Legacy Media have taken a keener interest in firefighting the revelations contained within the Russia Hoax document drop published by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. NBC’s Kristen Welker joined the fray and inadvertently demonstrated why Republicans aren’t usually booked on these segments.

Having heard enough, Graham calls Welker out for “sweeping this stuff under the rug” (click “expand” to view transcript):

WELKER: Hold on, Senator. As you know, former President Obama has weighed in through a spokesperson. He says that's just patently false.

GRAHAM: Yeah.

WELKER: I actually spoke to Susan Miller, who's a former senior CIA officer who helped to oversee the 2017 intelligence assessment on Russian interference. She says it's completely false that Obama or anyone else asked them to change or sway their investigation.

GRAHAM: What else did she say?

WELKER: She says they all–

GRAHAM: What else did she say?

WELKER: She says, and she's a Republican, they all would have quit if that had happened, Senator. Are you trying to–

GRAHAM: No. No.

WELKER: –rewrite history to distract from the Epstein matter, Senator?

GRAHAM: No. I am trying to let you know and the media know that we found something we didn't know before. At the end of the day, I'm not calling for prosecution against President Obama for treason. But, I am calling for an investigation. Mr. Mueller also said there was no credible evidence that President Trump colluded with the Russians. For years, and months, and days, and weeks, people had their lives turned upside down, chasing the Mueller narrative that Trump was in bed with the Russians, that the Trump campaign was colluding with the Russians. The only people colluding with the Russians were the Hillary Clinton campaign and Christopher Steele manufacturing a document to get warrants against Carter Page, based on lies and falsehoods. So, yeah, I'm very familiar with it. What you don't seem to acknowledge is there's something new being found. Rather than reinventing the wheel here, let's go back to a special counsel model to look at this something new.

WELKER: But, Senator–

GRAHAM: The something new is statements by President Obama, "I don't like your analysis Russia wasn't involved here," in 2016.

WELKER: Senator, you're saying there's something new. This report goes back to 2020. It's five years old. There's actually nothing new in this report and nothing that changes anything--

GRAHAM: The evidence that she turned over–

WELKER: I want to talk about Gaza, Senator.

GRAHAM:–is new to me.

WELKER: Senator–

GRAHAM: It's new to me.

WELKER: But, Senator–

GRAHAM: You're trying to sweep this stuff under the rug. And that's not right.

Welker began with a quick Epstein question before pivoting to the Russia Hoax, which mirrors her question on whether the doc drop is a distraction from Epstein. The key element on the legacy media’s handling of the document drop is to depict it as chaff intended to distract from Epstein when, in fact, these things take a while to get going. 

Welker attempts to rebut Gabbard’s findings with the 2020 Senate Intel Committee report which Graham rebuts, calling Welker out for omitting a bunch of information after she tried to gotcha him with the findings of the Durham report. Graham brings up several items not previously mentioned on legacy air within this context.

For example, Graham cites this X post from FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino as to the life-altering things he’s seen over the course of investigating the weaponization in government, which was a core Trump campaign promise: 

Graham also mentioned the many lives destroyed as a result of the Russia Hoax, which is noteworthy in and of itself. Graham didn’t take Welker’s bait on Obama being charged with treason, and called for a special counsel to investigate everything related to the document drop.

It is after Welker’s last attempt to tie the document drop to Epstein that Graham calls her out for sweeping the document drop “under the rug.” Her engagements with Graham were rebuffed at every corner, proving why Republicans had not yet been booked on the Russia Hoax. Will the legacies try to take another shot or will they limit discussions of the document drop to colleague panels and interviews with Obama funcionaries, if at all? Time will tell.

Click “expand” to view the full transcript of the aforementioned interview as aired on NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday, July 27th, 2025:

KRISTEN WELKER: Welcome back. Joining me now is Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. Senator Graham, welcome back to Meet the Press.

LINDSEY GRAHAM: Thank you.

WELKER: Thank you for being back. So, let's start with the Epstein files. Let me ask you the question I've asked everyone. You've just heard my conversations. Do you think that the Jeffrey Epstein files should be released in full, Senator?

GRAHAM: Yeah. I liked what the speaker said. I am on board with Speaker Johnson to release as much as you can, protecting victims the best you can.

WELKER: All right. Well, let me ask you about this twist that happened this week. President Trump seemed to want to try to shut down questions about the Epstein files by accusing former President Obama of treason. This came as his Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, declassified documents which alleged top Obama officials manufactured information related to Russian interference in the 2016 election. Now, Senator, as you are well aware, this actually contradicts a bipartisan Senate Intelligence report led by Marco Rubio, which found that Russia did in fact interfere in the election. Do you actually believe that former President Obama committed treason?

GRAHAM: Well, I think somebody needs to look at what we found. The Intel Committee looked at the matter. And they said in 2017, the intelligence analysis of 2017 showing that Russia was trying to interfere in our election was real. They didn't achieve their goal. But what she found, Ms. Gabbard, is that in 2016, the intelligence community told President Obama, "There's no evidence that Russia was involved in trying to change the outcome of the election." And he supposedly told a group of people, "Keep looking." And the analysis changed. So, what we're looking at is, what role did Obama play in 2016 to change the narrative that resulted in 2017? I'm not alleging he committed treason, but I am saying it bothers me, it's disturbing that this is new information. And now, you got the number two guy at the FBI, Dan-- Mr. Bongino, saying he's saying things that has changed his life. And I assume now he's referring to Russia. So, the best way to handle this is if there is evidence of a crime being committed or suspected evidence of a crime being committed, create a special counsel to look at it. I think that's the best way to go.

WELKER: Okay. Let me follow up with you on your calls for a special counsel investigation. As you know, Senator, there was already a Trump-appointed special counsel at the time, investigating the origins of the Russia probe. It did not find any evidence of political interference. And, Senator, at the time, you agreed with the findings of the intelligence community. I want to play back what you said at the time. Take a look.

GRAHAM: Yep.

[BEGIN TAPE]

GRAHAM: The Russians did it. It was the Russians who tried to interfere in our election. Every member of the committee agrees it was the Russians. They didn't change the outcome, but they did release information embarrassing to the Democratic Party. It did affect Hillary Clinton. There's only one person in Washington that I know of that has any doubt about what Russia did in our election. And it's President Trump.

[END TAPE]

WELKER: Senator, are you now saying that you don't believe that Russia tried to interfere in the 2016 election?

GRAHAM: Well, what I am saying is that you left a lot out here. It's called the Horowitz report. It's the Mueller investigation– was crooked and rotten to the core. The Washington Post and The New York Times got a Pulitzer prize for reporting on Trump's campaign's relationship with Russia. It was all BS. At the time, I didn't know any of that. At the time, I didn't know that they were manufacturing evidence to get FISA warrants. There was a confirmation bias. Durham didn't say there was no political bias. He said quite the opposite. He said every time a FISA warrant was sought in the Mueller world, they got it, and the errors made to get warrants in this space were a lot greater than they were in anything not involving Trump. But what I'm saying is that this is new evidence. This is something I didn't know, you didn't know, that in 2016 Obama suggested I don't like the outcome that there's no evidence Russia was involved. Well, now we all say Russia was involved. But in 2016, they said Russia wasn't involved. What the hell happened?

WELKER: Senator–

GRAHAM: Let's get a special counsel.

WELKER: Hold on, Senator. As you know, former President Obama has weighed in through a spokesperson. He says that's just patently false.

GRAHAM: Yeah.

WELKER: I actually spoke to Susan Miller, who's a former senior CIA officer who helped to oversee the 2017 intelligence assessment on Russian interference. She says it's completely false that Obama or anyone else asked them to change or sway their investigation.

GRAHAM: What else did she say?

WELKER: She says they all–

GRAHAM: What else did she say?

WELKER: She says, and she's a Republican, they all would have quit if that had happened, Senator. Are you trying to–

GRAHAM: No. No.

WELKER: –rewrite history to distract from the Epstein matter, Senator?

GRAHAM: No. I am trying to let you know and the media know that we found something we didn't know before. At the end of the day, I'm not calling for prosecution against President Obama for treason. But, I am calling for an investigation. Mr. Mueller also said there was no credible evidence that President Trump colluded with the Russians. For years, and months, and days, and weeks, people had their lives turned upside down, chasing the Mueller narrative that Trump was in bed with the Russians, that the Trump campaign was colluding with the Russians. The only people colluding with the Russians were the Hillary Clinton campaign and Christopher Steele manufacturing a document to get warrants against Carter Page, based on lies and falsehoods. So, yeah, I'm very familiar with it. What you don't seem to acknowledge is there's something new being found. Rather than reinventing the wheel here, let's go back to a special counsel model to look at this something new.

WELKER: But, Senator–

GRAHAM: The something new is statements by President Obama, "I don't like your analysis Russia wasn't involved here," in 2016.

WELKER: Senator, you're saying there's something new. This report goes back to 2020. It's five years old. There's actually nothing new in this report and nothing that changes anything--

GRAHAM: The evidence that she turned over–

WELKER: I want to talk about Gaza, Senator.

GRAHAM:–is new to me.

WELKER: Senator–

GRAHAM: It's new to me.

WELKER: But, Senator–

GRAHAM: You're trying to sweep this stuff under the rug. And that's not right. Let’s go to Gaza.

WELKER: But, Senator, you know that at the time, you said you did believe the assessments and the multiple investigations. But let me move onto Gaza. Let's talk about Gaza, Senator, because this is so important. As I just talked about with the House speaker, the world is just watching this humanitarian crisis unfold. President Trump said he told Prime Minister Netanyahu to quote, "Finish the job, this week." I know that you are in touch with President Trump. You're in touch with Israeli officials. What are you anticipating is going to happen next? What does, "Finish the job," mean, Senator?

GRAHAM: Well, I talked to Cindy McCain last night. Here's some good news for the people in Gaza. Humanitarian corridors are now going to be open. Israel is going to work with the UN, the World Food Program, to get some food into these people, who need it. But, I think what the topic we're talking about today is a change in strategy. I think President Trump has come to believe, and I've certainly come to believe, there's no way you're going to negotiate an end of this war with Hamas. Hamas is a terrorist organization who is chartered to destroy the state of Israel. They're religious Nazis. They hold Israeli hostages. I think Israel's come to conclude that they can't achieve a goal of ending the war with Hamas that would be satisfactory to the safety of Israel and that they're going to do in Gaza what we did in Tokyo and Berlin; take the place by force then start over again, presenting a better future for the Palestinians, hopefully having the Arabs take over the West Bank and Gaza. But I think going forward, Kristen, you're going to see a change in tactics, a full military effort by Israel to take Gaza down, like we did in Tokyo and Berlin.

WELKER: Senator, bottom line, does that mean the hostages are not going to be coming back alive, if Israel were to move forward with what you're effectively saying?

GRAHAM: I hope not. I think there are people, maybe, in the Hamas organization that would accept safe passage if they released the hostages. If I were Israel, I would make that offer to Hamas fighters, "You can leave safely. We want our hostages back." But here's the problem Israel has. They're losing soldiers, four and five a week. I hope and pray the hostages will come back. Hamas could end this tomorrow, laying down their weapons and releasing the hostages. There is no future for the Palestinian people, as long as Hamas is around. So all I can say is that you're going to see, I think, in the next days and weeks, a military effort to destroy Hamas, akin to what we did in Tokyo and Berlin to destroy the Nazis and the Japanese.

WELKER: Well, we all are praying for those hostages, still. Senator Lindsey Graham, thank you so much. When we come back, the cancellation of a late-night comedy show and what we've heard from its iconic host over the years. Our Meet the Press Minute is next.

 

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