Donald Trump’s response to the sudden death of Lindsey Graham has been predictably chaotic. The president has mostly lauded the late South Carolina senator, while simultaneously using his death to attack Democrats, rant about the SAVE America Act , and
push Congress to pass crypto-friendly legislation. “In honor of Lindsey Graham, a big supporter, the U.S. Senate should pass the Clarity Act,” he wrote Monday morning on Truth Social.
Trump has also squeezed in a few jabs at his longtime ally, who, like all of his longtime allies, could have been a little more loyal.
“He had one bad moment, that was the January 6 thing, when he stood up: ‘All right, now I’ve had it. That’s it. I can’t do it anymore,'” Trump told Fox News on Monday. “Then he called me about 40 minutes later and he said, ‘Did I really say that? I can’t believe it,’ and he took it back. So I give him a 99 instead of a 100.”
“I had nothing to do with that, just so you understand,” Trump continued of the Jan. 6 riots, during which a violent mob of his supporters stormed the Capitol in an attempt to stop the certification of the 2020 election. “People got terribly destroyed because of that, where they did absolutely nothing wrong. I was very proud to give everyone a pardon.”
Graham did indeed swear off Trump in the hours following the riot. “Count me out, enough is enough,” he said in a speech on the Senate floor hours after the attack, before, according to Trump, crawling back to him shortly thereafter. Graham remained in the bag for Trump, but he continued to decry Jan. 6, calling it a “dark day in American history” on its anniversary last year before opposing Trump’s blanket pardons of the rioters.
Trump also gloated over defeating Graham in the 2016 Republican presidential primary. “He was totally against me,” the president remembered. “He was fighting me. … I was leading in the polls by a lot. He said, ‘I’ll get you in South Carolina. I’m going to get you in South Carolina.’ That didn’t work out too well. I joke about it. It was amazing.”
Graham was indeed totally against Trump during the 2016 primary, famously writing: “If we nominate Trump we will get destroyed…….and we will deserve it.”
It’s been just over a decade since Graham portended the party’s demise. It’s an eternity in politics, and Graham died such a close ally to the man he once reviled that Trump on Monday called for Graham’s sister to replace him in the Senate. “This would be a fabulous tribute to Lindsey, who loved her dearly!” the president wrote.
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