South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham issued a warning to congressional Democrats that he and leading Senate Republicans would not allow the upper chamber to be transformed "into a circus" after watching impeachment proceedings play out in the House.

"We’re not going to turn the Senate into a circus," Graham said Sunday on Fox News's Sunday Morning Futures. "And I would tell Schiff, what you’re doing is very dangerous for the separation of powers here.”

Democrats are impeaching President Trump on the heels of a report from an intelligence community whistleblower who alleged that Trump extorted the president of Ukraine for his personal political gain.

The House Intelligence Committee, under the leadership of Chairman Adam Schiff, held five days of public hearings about the circumstances leading to a July 25 phone call between the two world leaders. Democrats spent the hearings painting Trump as a dangerously unhinged assailant on the Constitution while Republicans dismissed the inquiry as unfair and unjust.

The House is expected to vote on article of impeachment before Christmas, triggering a jury trial in the Senate.

Graham, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Democrats lack a substantive case for Trump's removal from office.

"This whole Ukrainian stuff is a joke," Graham said. "They got the money. They got the meeting with the president. They didn’t investigate Joe Biden or Hunter Biden. There is no there there.”





Trump is said to have asked the President of Ukraine to announce and investigation into 2020 Democratic front runner Joe Biden and his son Hunter.

Hunter Biden sat on the board of a corrupt Ukrainian oil and gas company, a post he was paid handsomely to hold.

Republicans like Graham have highlighted what they say was Trump's grave "concern" about corruption in the country and claimed that is why Trump placed a temporary hold on military aide to the war-torn European nation.

Schiff and leading Democrats are not only hurting their case the longer impeachment drama drags out, Graham said, but they are hurting citizens' trust in government.

“The accountability comes in November of 2020 when the public sees what the House has done with their majority," he said. "They’ve spent all their time trying to destroy the Trump presidency. They’ve done nothing beneficial for the American people. You know who may be the most valuable player for the Republican Party in the 2020 election cycle? Adam Schiff.”

