Tag: Lindsey Graham

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GOP U.S. Senate

Lindsey Graham Gets Verbally Slapped Down For His Hateful Attack On A Democratic Colleague

South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham stepped way over the line during debate Sunday on amendments to the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, and he quickly got put in his place for his remarks.

HuffPost notes that Graham attacked Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH):

Graham directly addressed Hassan, calling her actions “deceitful” and “dishonest,” during a debate on repealing a tax on foreign oil.

“This gives phony and cynical a bad name,” Graham snapped in a video shared by Forbes. They wouldn’t let you do this in professional wrestling. If you think people are this dumb, you are gonna be sadly mistaken.”

That led Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT), who was presiding over the Senate at the time, to admonish Graham for attacking the motives of a fellow senator and directly addressing Hassan instead of through the chair, which is Senate procedure.

What got Graham so agitated? Of all things, a tax on foreign oil, which Graham wanted removed. Instead, it was defeated soundly, which led the South Carolinian to squawk:

“What she’s doing is trying to strike the provisions that she just voted against but it requires 60 votes So she can vote for repealing a gas tax she just voted against so she’ll look good for the voters. If you really wanted to repeal the gas tax, the new one indexed to inflation, you should have voted for my amendment.

“What you’re doing is deceitful, it’s dishonest, and we’re gonna call you out!”

Murphy told Graham:

“The senators are reminded to address each other through the chair and in the third person.”

After being called out, The Hill notes, Graham “settled down.”

Here’s the video courtesy of Forbes:

Categories
GOP Whining Taxation U.S. Senate

WATCH Sen. Blumenthal Shut Down ‘Preposterous’ Lindsey Graham For Lying About The IRS And Taxes

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) had more than enough of South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham’s lies Sunday and shut him down during a joint appearance the two made on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

The two senators were invited on to discuss the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, which is on the verge of passing in the U.S. Senate, even though Graham says he won’t support the legislation no matter how amendments are added or changes made, and tried to raise the specter that adding more IRS agents would lead to some sort of tax Gestapo, remarking:

“Hiring 86,000 more IRS agents, if that makes you feel better, you missed a lot. They’re coming after waitresses and Uber drivers and everybody else to collect more taxes. So if you think growing the IRS is good for you, you’re wrong.”

Host Dana Bash asked Blumenthal if he wanted to reply to his colleague, and he took her up on the offer:

“I think the IRS is going to target the highest income Americans. As the saying goes, that’s where the money is, that’s where they’re going to look to collect.”

He then added:

“The idea there’s going to be this army of IRS agents descending on the average Americans is preposterous. Tax fairness is what we need. For the biggest corporations in this country to pay no taxes, for them to do stock buybacks that benefit the shareholders? For example in the case of oil companies, they are making three to four times they did last year. What are they doing with those excess windfall profits? Lowering gasoline prices? No, they are doing stock buybacks and they ought to pay a tax on it.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noDO3M-blwk&feature=emb_logo

Poor Lindsey! He can’t admit that the real reason he won’t support cracking down on rich tax cheats is because those same crooks are major contributors to his campaign.

Good on Sen. Blumenthal for calling Graham out and shutting him down. The last thing we need more of is GOP bullshit and excuses.

Categories
Capitol Insurrection Congress January 6

Adam Kinzinger Has The Perfect Comeback When Lindsey Graham Suggests A January 6 Witness Lied

Ever since former Trump administration official Cassidy Hutchinson testified for nearly two hours before the January 6 House Select Committee, Republicans (including failed, one-term former president Donald Trump) have been desperately trying to undercut what she said, but the vast majority of them have been fact-free screeds that only serve to reinforce the belief that both Trump and the GOP know the hearings are incredibly damaging.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) is the latest to take a shot at attacking Hutchinson, tweeting out this:

“Apparently Ms. Hutchinson testified numerous times for multiple hours about what she knew about the events leading up to January 6 and its aftermath.

“In her previous testimony did she mention the dramatic events described today?”

“If so, her previous testimony should be released.

“If not, why not?”

What Graham conveniently neglected to mention is that Hutchinson was previously represented by a Trump-allied attorney. She fired that counselor and now has one who is actually working on her behalf instead of trying to protect Donald and his minions from what she witnessed during her time as a member of the West Wing staff.

Jan. 6 committee member Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) wasted no time taking Lindsey down a notch, firing back with a tweet of his own that also serves as a warning to Graham and anyone else who might try to stand in the way of the committee’s work.

“You are willing to go down with the ship? Man up Lindsey.”

Lindsey doesn’t have all the facts that Kinzinger and others on the committee are privy to. And Kinzinger is also making it clear to the senator that if he continues to defend the indefensible actions of Trump and others who were part of the failed coup attempt, he’s also likely to be destroyed.

Graham has yet to respond to Kinzinger’s tweet, and if he has a single brain cell left in his otherwise empty head, he won’t.

 

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Abortion GOP Supreme Court U.S. Senate

Lindsey Graham: I Can’t Believe People Are Upset Kavanaugh Lied About Overturning Roe At His Confirmation

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said Sunday that he’s shocked some of his colleagues in the Senate are upset Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh lied about overturning Roe v. Wade during his confirmation hearings in 2018.

Fox host Bret Baier noted that Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) said this week she’s angry Kavanaugh told her he would likely not vote to overturn the landmark 1973 Roe ruling:

“Some senators are now openly questioning whether they were misled in the confirmation hearings.”

Graham replied:

“This has not been well-accepted by the public. The public has been divided since 1973. Ask your next guest, who is a good friend, does he want the court to reconsider [Citizens United] regarding campaign finance laws? Would he welcome a revisiting of the Heller decision where the court said the Second Amendment was a personal right?”

The public has been divided on the issue of a woman’s right to choose? Polls released just this week show otherwise, with a Washington Post-ABC News poll indicating that “54 percent of Americans think the 1973 Roe decision should be upheld while 28 percent believe it should be overturned — a roughly 2-to-1 margin.”

Graham continued:

“So my liberal friends don’t mind the court overturning decisions they don’t like. They very much are against overturning decisions that they agree with. So you can’t bargain your way into getting onto the court. So any senator who tries to bargain with a nominee — will you uphold the case I like or overturn the ones I don’t — is really doing a disservice to the court.”

Notice how Graham completely avoided saying if a justice should be punished for lying under oath during a confirmation hearing? Apparently the senator is fine with perjury as long as it’s done in the service of conservative ideals.

Categories
GOP Supreme Court WTF?!

Childish Lindsey Graham Disrespected Ketanji Brown Jackson Once Again Today

After acting like a spoiled child during the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson by storming out of the Senate, South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham proved once again today that he isn’t fit to shine Justice Jackson’s shoes.

When the vote was held in the Senate this afternoon on Jackson’s nomination to the Supreme Court, Graham refused to actually show up on the floor of the Senate to cast his vote, according to multiple reports.

CNN’s John Harwood noted:

“Lindsey Graham didn’t wear a tie for the occasion of Ketanji Brown Jackson’s confirmation to become the 1st black woman on the Supreme Court. That meant he wasn’t allowed on the Senate floor and voted ‘no’ from the cloakroom.”

“All the more remarkable for the fact that Graham was wearing a tie at a press conference earlier in the day. He took it off.”

Yes, you read that correctly: Graham took off his tie so he wouldn’t be able to enter the Senate chamber and instead cast his vote from the cloakroom like a sniveling coward.

Of course, some might say it’s wholly appropriate that Graham cast his vote from a closet. And some on Twitter said exactly that, along with noting what a complete shit heel Lindsey’s been ever since he was reelected in 2020. Take a look at some of the comments:

https://twitter.com/PhillyF01934538/status/1512141035241185291?s=20&t=BEKKO0cd6xlUmEkjylWbZw

https://twitter.com/a_boss_sandwich/status/1512141440901599234?s=20&t=BEKKO0cd6xlUmEkjylWbZw
https://twitter.com/rondem1/status/1512143576205045777?s=20&t=BEKKO0cd6xlUmEkjylWbZw