Sen. Lindsey Graham and Donald Trump (Andrew Harnik/AP)
Sen. Lindsey Graham chooses Donald Trump over Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, a day after McConnell denounced Trump’s instigation of the Capitol Attack on January 6.
Graham, a Trump friend since 2016 and former head of the Senate Judiciary Committee, issued his statement via an interview with Fox TV’s Chris Wallace. It is the first high-profile declaration in the battle between establishment Republicans and Trumpists for control of the GOP.
The Senator from South Carolina said he spoke with Trump on Saturday night and will go to Trump’s Florida resort this week “to play a little golf with him”. He launched into praise, “Trump Plus is the way back in 2022.”
Donald Trump is the most vibrant member of the Republican Party. The Trump movement is alive and well. All I can say is that the most potent force in the Republican Party is President Trump. We need Trump.
Graham declared that the impeachment trial, in which 57 Senators — including seven Republicans — voted to convict Trump, was “a complete joke”. He repeated the diversionary attack line of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy that Democrats and President Joe Biden are pushing a “most radical agenda”.
In contrast, McConnell spoke just after the Senate vote on Saturday about Trump’s “disgraceful dereliction of duty” and incitement of the assault on the Capitol: “There is no question — none — that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day.”
McConnell made clear his hope that Trump might be tried in a criminal or civil court: “[He] is still liable for everything he did while he’s in office. He didn’t get away with anything yet.”
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On Saturday night, he implicitly warned the Trumpists against running candidates against Republican incumbents in next year’s primaries.
My goal is, in every way possible, to have nominees representing the Republican Party who can win in November. Some of them may be people the former president likes. Some of them may not be. The only thing I care about is electability.
Graham’s Conversion for Trump
Graham slammed McConnell on Sunday:
I think his speech is an outlier regarding how Republicans feel about all this….
He got a load off his chest, obviously, but unfortunately he put a load on the back of Republicans. That speech you will see in 2022 campaigns.
In contrast, Graham portrayed Trump as the path for Republican victories in the Congressional races next year: “I’m into winning. And if you want to get something off your chest, fine. But I’m into winning.”
During the 2016 Presidential campaign, in which he was a candidate, Graham called Trump a “race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot”: “He doesn’t represent my party.”
But after he dropped out of the race and Trump won the Republican nomination, Graham became a confidant, repeating Trump’s disinformation and protecting him from political accountability for four years.
Just after the Capitol Attack, Graham said of Trump, “Enough is enough. I’m done.” He chided that Trump needed to understand that his actions “were the problem, not the solution”.
However, speaking to Wallace, Graham praised Trump by using the same “fight like hell” phrase that Trump deployed on January 6 as he urged followers to march on the Capitol and block the Congressional certification of Joe Biden:
He encouraged supporters throughout the country to fight like hell to take back the election that he felt was stolen.
Last Thursday, Graham — alongside Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Mike Lee of Utah, defied their oaths as “impartial jurors” and conferred with Trump’s defense team about the impeachment trial.
Yesterday he further entrenched himself with the Trumpists by endorsing Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara for the Senate seat in North Carolina in 2022, “I certainly would be behind her because I think she represents the future of the Republican Party.”
The seat is currently held by Sen. Richard Burr, one of the seven Republicans who voted to convict Trump, who is retiring next year. Burr said on Saturday:
The President promoted unfounded conspiracy theories to cast doubt on the integrity of a free and fair election because he did not like the results. As Congress met to certify the election results, the President directed his supporters to go to the Capitol to disrupt the lawful proceedings required by the Constitution.
Sen. Cassidy: “Trump’s Force Wanes”
Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, another vote for conviction on Saturday, countered the Trumpists in a Sunday interview.
“I think [Trump’s] force wanes,” he said. “The Republican Party is more than just one person. The Republican Party is about ideas.”
He said of Trump’s role in the Capitol Attack:
It was clear that he wished that lawmakers be intimidated. And even after he knew that there was violence that was taking place, he continued to sanction the mob being there.
Another senior GOP figure, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, predicted that there will be “a real battle for the soul of the Republican Party over the next couple of years”.
He said there would have been more votes for conviction had Republican senators not feared backlash from Trumpists: “A lot of Republicans are outraged, but they don’t have the courage to stand up and vote that way because they’re afraid of being primaried, or they’re going to lose their careers.”
But other Republican legislators joined Graham’s denunciation of McConnell.
“A lot of people are frustrated with his comments. I’m not going to sugarcoat it,” said Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona, the head of the hard-line House Freedom Caucus.
And Rep. Jim Banks of Indiana, chair of the conservative Republican Study Committee, said House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy “leads more of us” than McConnell.
He further dismissed the top Senate Republican.“At this moment, we have many leaders. The vacuum has been filled by many voices.”
