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The White House asked Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) to block the resolution that would have formally recognized Turkey’s genocide of the Armenian people, Axios reports.
Graham was leaving the Oval Office after he joined a meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan when a senior White House staff asked him to object on the floor to the resolution that had passed the House to avoid upsetting Erdogan.
Charlie Sykes: “Graham told himself: by staying close to Trump, he could influence him and prevent horribly bad decisions. Others made the same calculation, but Graham made the uber-tradeoff, because the stakes were so high. What did it matter if he had to endure temporary embarrassments, abase himself on cable television, or even become a political punchline, if he could stop Trump from impulsive decisions regarding Russia or North Korea? Or Syria?”
“The world saw Graham as a craven, cringing Uriah Heep. Graham saw himself as someone who could save the world, or at least the Kurds.”
“Graham calculated: If he didn’t play golf with Trump and indulge his penchant for pillow talk, Trump would be putting and chatting with Rand Paul, listening to the counsels of isolationism, appeasement and international amorality. He was not simply the adult in the room; he was the adult BFF in the room, who would temper Trump’s worst instincts.”
“And then came Trump’s decision. Despite Graham’s compulsive turd-polishing of the last few years, Trump didn’t even consult him before making the decision to abandon the Kurds. Graham, who had given up so much self-respect to prevent just this outcome, was not even in the room. He didn’t even get a text.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) is enraged over President Trump’s decision to abandon U.S. allies in northern Syria and took the rare step of challenging the president on Twitter and in a phone call to Fox News, calling it a “disaster in the making.”
Said Graham: “If I’m an Isis fighter, I’ve got a second lease on life. So to those who think ISIS has been defeated, you will soon see.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) urged President Trump to release more details of his phone call with the Ukrainian president in which he urged an investigation of Joe Biden’s son, Politico reports.
Said Graham: “I would urge him to continue to be as transparent as possible and tell us as much as he can without compromising executive privilege, so that we can understand what happened.”
He added: “I believe that President Trump is going to blow you away with his willingness to disclose and be transparent about this phone call, because I think he did nothing wrong and he has nothing to hide.”
Washington Post: “Graham and Wilders, leader of the Party of Freedom in the Netherlands, were seen smiling together Saturday night at the Ambrosetti Forum on Italy’s Lake Como. Wilders posted the picture to his Twitter account, writing, ‘Great to meet with US Senator @LindseyGrahamSC.’”
“The post was deleted shortly after it was published.”
“Wilders has drawn criticism for his views toward Islam. He has advocated for a tax on women who wear a hijab, supported a ban on Muslims immigrating to the Netherlands and said he feared a future with ‘more mosques than churches’ in his country.”
Meghan McCain criticized her father’s longtime friend Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) for standing by President Trump after Trump suggested that a group of non-white progressive congresswomen “go back” to where they came from, The Hill reports.
Said McCain: “Whatever is happening to Lindsey, this is not the person I used to know.”
She also slammed the “cowardice” of the GOP for not speaking out.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) told Face the Nation that Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) will be “a force to be reckoned with” following her strong performance in the first Democratic debate this week.
Said Graham: “One thing I’ll say about Kamala Harris, and I said this before, she’s got game. She is very talented, she’s very smart, and she’ll be a force to be reckoned with.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) told Fox News last night that President Trump should bomb Iran if the country does more to disrupt shipping activity.
Said Graham: “He should put the oil refineries on the target list and look at sinking the Iranian Navy if they attack shipping again. My red line is: If there’s any more disruption of shipping in the Strait of Hormuz linked to Iran, take out their Navy and bomb their refineries.”
Calls for Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) to resign began trending on Twitter Tuesday morning after the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman encouraged Donald Trump Jr. to plead the Fifth,” The Hill reports.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) suggested Donald Trump Jr. ignore a subpoena from his Republican colleague in the Senate and “call it a day.”
Said Graham: “If I were Donald Trump Jr.’s lawyer, I would tell him, you don’t need to go back into this environment anymore. You’ve been there for hours and hours and nothing being alleged here changes the outcome of the Mueller investigation.”
“Cindy completely understands that my job as a senator from South Carolina, where Trump is popular, is to represent my state’s interest but also to be a voice for the things that matter to her, me, Senator McCain and the country.”
— Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), quoted by the Washington Post, on how Cindy McCain views his support of President Trump.
“I would love him regardless of what he did. He’s part of our family. That’s doesn’t affect our friendship at all.”
— Cindy McCain, in an interview with the Washington Post, on her relationship with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and his support of President Trump.
Sen. Lindsay Graham, a close ally of Donald Trump, called for more sanctions on Russia and criticized presidential adviser Jared Kushner’s statements downplaying the significance of that country’s interference in the 2016 election, Bloomberg reports.
Said Graham: “I like Jared a lot, but he’s leaving out a big detail. Can you imagine what we would be saying if the Russians or the Iranians hacked into the presidential team of the Republican Party?”
“I’m all good, I’m done with the Mueller report. We will have Barr come in and tell us about what he found. I made sure that Mueller was able to do his job without interference. The Mueller report is over for me. Done.”
— Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, in an interview with CNN.
“He doesn’t have to say ‘let’s obstruct justice’ for it to be a crime.”
— Sen. Lindsey Graham, quoted by Now This in 1999, on impeaching President Bill Clinton.
“If the report indicates no collusion found by Mueller, done, over, for me.”
— Graham, in 2019, after the release of the Mueller report.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) “delivered a rousing speech behind closed doors at Mar-a-Lago on Friday night, joking about the prospect of President Donald Trump opening a hotel in Jerusalem and asking the crowd whether they’d like to see former Rep. Trey Gowdy on the Supreme Court,” Politico reports.
“With Trump looking on, Graham lavished the president with praise, ticking off a list of his accomplishments, including the booming economy, the elimination of Islamic State strongholds in Syria and Trump’s decision to move the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.”
A new Winthrop poll in South Carolina finds Sen. Lindsey Graham’s (R-SC) stature has “steadily risen” among state Republicans since becoming a close and vocal ally of President Trump.
Graham’s 74% approval rating among Republicans is up 23 points from April 2018 and is now even with Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC).
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
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