Graham rips Trump over interrogation policy: It’s like ‘Obama and his team never left’

Sen. Lindsey Graham turned his fire on President Trump on Friday over the administration’s hesitance to depart from trying suspected terrorists in the criminal justice system.

In a series of tweets Friday afternoon, the South Carolina Republican and sometime ally of Trump slammed the White House for its decision to charge Akayed Ullah, the suspect in Monday morning’s attempted pipe bombing in New York, in criminal court.

“I am incredibly disappointed to see the Trump Administration continue to treat terrorists as common criminals,” Graham wrote.

I am incredibly disappointed to see the Trump Administration continue to treat terrorists as common criminals.

— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) December 15, 2017

When it comes to the potential interrogation policies regarding terrorists, it is as if President Obama and his team never left.

How many more attacks will it take before the Trump Administration embraces the fact that we are fighting a war, not a crime?

— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) December 15, 2017

{mosads}

Ullah was charged with supporting an act of terror on Tuesday as well as criminal possession of a weapon and making terrorist threats. Police say he detonated a pipe bomb attached to his body in a New York Port Authority passageway on Monday, seriously injuring himself and wounding three others.

Trump has so far defended his position of trying terrorist suspects in federal court, saying in November that sending suspects to Guantanamo Bay to await military trial takes too long.

“Would love to send the NYC terrorist to Guantanamo but statistically that process takes much longer than going through the Federal system,” the president tweeted about Sayfullo Saipov, the suspect in an early November truck attack in New York that killed eight people.

“There is also something appropriate about keeping him in the home of the horrible crime he committed,” he added. “Should move fast. DEATH PENALTY!”