On Saturday, several members of Congress spoke with Ukrainian President Voldomyr Zelenskyy via Zoom, and after the video call was finished, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) decided he’d post a video on Twitter what he called the “takeaways” of the conversation, even though doing so could well present a security risk for Zelenskyy.
Graham, however, like so many Republicans who have never and will never be President of the United States, couldn’t resist trying to pretend he knows something about foreign policy and diplomacy, even though the only thing he’s ever succeeded at is whining and complaining.
In his video of what he discussed with Zelenskyy, Graham included what can only be called a subtle but pointed criticism of President Joe Biden and the administration, remarking:
“Apparently, the United States is part of the problem, not the solution.”
Yes, know-nothing, feckless members of the Senate who try to run foreign policy instead of staying in their lane are indeed part of the problem and have no solutions to anything.
Twitter lit up with mockery, snark, and anger aimed directly at the South Carolina Republican.
Once again, failed, one-term former President Donald Trump has set members of the GOP against one another, which could prove fatal to Republicans as they try to unify their party and win the 2022 midterm elections.
This time, Trump has Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) lashing out at Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) over remarks the ex-president made Saturday evening during a rally in Conroe, Texas.
Specifically, Trump hinted he might just issue presidential pardons to those who have been charged with taking part in the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol:
“Another thing we’ll do — and so many people have been asking me about it — if I run and if I win, we will treat those people from January 6 fairly. We will treat them fairly,” he said at a rally in Conroe, Texas. “And if it requires pardons, we will give them pardons. Because they are being treated so unfairly.”
That didn’t sit well with Graham, who pushed back at Trump on Sunday, according to Newsweek:
“I don’t want to send any signal that it was OK to defile the Capitol. There are other groups with causes that may want to go down to the violent path that these people get pardoned.”
Graham’s remarks set Greene off on a tangent which she posted on the Telegram social media app:
“Lindsey Graham has done nothing about J6 (Jan. 6).
“I guess Lindsey Graham doesn’t care about being presumed innocent until proven guilty. Americans are being treated worst than Islamic terrorists at Gitmo and Lindsey Graham doesn’t care. He doesn’t care about their due process rights. He doesn’t care that they haven’t seen their families and are denied seeing their attorneys most of the time. He doesn’t care that these pretrial J6 defendants are denied hair cuts, shaving, chapel, and the most basic of human rights. He doesn’t care that they are abused in the DC jail because they are white, male, and voted for the very President that he supposedly supports.”
The Georgia Republican then added this to her screed:
“While no one agrees with the violence and riot at the Capitol on J6, Lindsey Graham would rather see pretrial J6 defendants be abused and forgotten just like Nancy Pelosi wants them abused and forgotten. Instead of actually doing something about the great injustice happening to pretrial Americans awaiting their day in court, Lindsey Graham turns his head to their abuse, votes for Joe Biden’s nominees, votes for Joe Biden’s Infrastructure bill, and then pretends to be a friend to President Trump. Aren’t we all sick and tired of those kind of ‘friends.'”
Be sure and note the line “While no one agrees with the violence and riot at the Captiol on J6…” However, Greene does indeed agree with that took place, and has made that clear on multiple occasions. She is also suspected of having played a part in what transpired on that horrific day.
The good news is that if Republicans are sniping at each other, it weakens them. Leave it to Trump to set off a civil war inside the GOP.
Former Trump administration adviser Steve Bannon is furious with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and is accusing him of being a traitor to the MAGA movement and failed, one-term former President Donald Trump.
On his “War Room” podcast Wednesday, Bannon referenced remarks made by President Joe Biden that there were five Republican senators who support him but fear saying so because they believe they would face primary challenges from pro-Trump candidates:
“The five traitors — and this is the scumbags and slimeballs you have here in the nation’s capital — he got five Republican senators have told him they agree with what he’s doing. They agree with what he’s doing and they would vote and support him, but they’re afraid of, wait for it, the War Room Posse.”
Bannon then urged the five senators to identify themselves, taking direct aim at Graham:
“Have enough guts to step up and tell us, Lindsey Graham, who you are. We need you guys to step up to the plate, Lindsey Graham!”
Wow! Sounds like the GOP is starting to implode. And with Trump facing the very real possibility of being indicted in New York, Georgia, and by the Justice Department for his role in the January 6 Capitol insurrection, we could see the Republican Party in a full-scale civil war long before the 2022 midterm elections.
For those of you keeping score at home in the Great GOP Civil War of 2021, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) says he’s officially done with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) because Mitch isn’t being sufficiently subservient to failed, one-term former President Donald Trump.
Yep. Lindsey says he won’t even support Mitch to be the next majority leader if Republicans happen to win back control of the Senate in the midterm elections.
During an appearance on Fox News Wednesday evening, Lindsey told host Sean Hannity:
“Elections are about the future. If you want to be a Republican leader in the House or the Senate, you have to have a working relationship with President Donald Trump. He’s the most consequential Republican since Ronald Reagan. It’s his nomination if he wants it, and I think he’ll get reelected in 2024.”
If elections are about the future, as Graham asserts, why would you want to hitch your wagon to a man who was impeached twice, lost by nearly 8 million votes, and has a lower positive approval rating among the public than gonorrhea, not to mention that he’s facing indictment in multiple jurisdictions?
But Lindsey was far from finished laying a massive smooch on Trump’s fat butt, adding:
“I’m not going to vote for anybody for leader of the Senate as a Republican unless they can prove to me that they can advocate an ‘American First’ agenda and have a working relationship with President Trump, because if you can’t do that, you will fail.”
Graham: If you want to be a Republican leader in the House or the Senate, you have to have a working relationship with Trump. Can Senator McConnell effectively work with the Donald Trump. I’m not going to vote for anybody that can’t have a working relationship with Trump pic.twitter.com/boOjekgyTT
Pay attention, Lindsey: DONALD TRUMP HAS ALREADY FAILED! He failed miserably and will go down as the worst president in American history. Step aside, Millard Fillmore and Warren Harding, Dotard Donnie is taking your spot!
Graham was asked Thursday by Fox host Sandra Smith if he really meant what he told Hannity:
“When you go back to the warning to Mitch McConnell, why would you do that in this moment in a midterm election election year?”
Graham snapped back with this reply:
“Are you not listening? It’s not a warning. He says he wants to be the Republican leader. I’ve acknowledged he’s been the most consequential Republican leader of my lifetime. … But look what Mitch accomplished working with Donald Trump. The question is, how do we go forward as a party?”
Graham then added to be an effective GOP leader “you don’t have to kiss Donald Trump’s ass, but you got to have a working relationship with him for us to be successful.”
Fox News anchor Sandra Smith: "When you go back to the warning to Mitch McConnell, why would you do that in this moment in a midterm election year?"
If that’s the case, then why is Lindsey so eager to pucker up and kiss Donald Trump’s ass?
Republicans are convinced they’ve got the 2022 midterms all sewn up, but based on the way they’re sniping at each other ten months out, they might not want to count those chickens just yet.
Oh, and Lindsey, one other thing: Do us all a favor and wipe that orange and brown smudge off your nose.
We’ve known for a few weeks now that one-term former President Donald Trump’s oldest son, Don Jr., was in frequent contact with then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows on January 6, 2021, urging Meadows to tell the ex-president he needed to call off the dogs and urge his supporters to vacate the Capitol where they were rioting.
Now, however, we know that the former president’s favorite child, Ivanka, was acting as a conduit for messages traveling from supporters to the Donald and others in the White House on the day of the insurrection.
Oddly enough, Ivanka’s involvement has become public knowledge thanks to one of the most sycophantic Trump supporters in Congress, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who told CNN’s Manu Raju what he conveyed to the former president’s daughter:
Sen. Lindsey Graham said he didn’t text with Meadows on Jan. 6 —- but told me he spoke with Ivanka Trump to deliver a message to her dad. He said he wanted then-President Trump to “tell his people to leave.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham said he didn’t text with Meadows on Jan. 6 —- but told me he spoke with Ivanka Trump to deliver a message to her dad. He said he wanted then-President Trump to “tell his people to leave.”
The Washington Post confirmed Raju’s reporting and added that Graham also told Ivanka:
“You need to get these people out of here. This thing is going south. This is not good. You’re going to have to tell these people to stand down. Stand down.”
Ivanka sent out a tweet on the day of the Capitol insurrection which read:
“American Patriots – any security breach or disrespect to our law enforcement is unacceptable,” she posted at 3:15 p.m. on January 6th. “The violence must stop immediately. Please be peaceful.”
That tweet was later deleted after a wave of criticism because Ivanka had referred to rioters as “Patriots.”
All of this is leading to an inevitable nexus: The Jan. 6 Select Committee will no doubt be demanding all text messages and other communications that were sent by both Ivanka and her husband, Jared Kushner.
With each day it becomes clearer that many in the Trump family were part of a larger conspiracy which was carried out on Jan. 6 at the Capitol. And if it can be proven they broke the law, they need to be referred to the Justice Department for criminal charges.