It’s been a chaotic few days for Lindsey Graham. First, Russia declared him a terrorist. Then he was mercilessly booed at a Trump rally in South Carolina. And now he was just read by Hillary Clinton on Twitter.
OK, let’s start with Russia…
Earlier this month, Vice reported that the gay-hating senator’s name was on the country’s secret “most wanted” list when the Russian Internal Affairs Ministry’s database was leaked online. He was among roughly 100,000 people who are wanted by the Kremlin.
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Russia first opened a criminal investigation into him after he met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in 2023, although it didn’t say what crime he was accused of committing.
Lindsey Graham has been having quite a week, and it’s only Wednesday.
But according to Politico, after he called Putin a murderer and said Russia should be designated as a state sponsor of terrorism following the death of Alexei Navalny last week, Graham’s name was reportedly elevated from the “most wanted” list to the “extremists and terrorists” list. Eek.
“Navalny was one of the bravest people I ever met,” Graham said on Face The Nation on Sunday. “When he went back to Russia he had to know he was going to be killed by Putin, and he was murdered by Putin.”
Oddly, Graham’s remarks came just days after he voted against sending more aid to Ukraine in the war against Russia at the behest of Donald Trump. Evidently, he can’t decide whether he likes or dislikes Russia, even though it’s pretty clear how Russia feels about him.
Now, speaking of Trump…
Graham was with him at his rally in South Carolina on Saturday night, during which the one-term, twice-impeached, quadruply-indicted ex-president crowed about winning 60% of the state’s primary vote.
BTW, normally a 60% victory would be just that–a victory! In Trump’s case, however, many Republican strategists are sounding the alarm bells and saying that a 40% loss is actually a terrible sign for the general election.
Trump has:
-100% Name ID -the RNC backing him -99% of elected Republicans supporting him
And he still lost 40% of the primary vote in South Carolina. ?— Alyssa Farah Griffin (@Alyssafarah) February 26, 2024
Anyway, when Graham stepped up to the podium during to congratulate Trump on his victory/loss, he was met with loud boos from the crowd. It got so bad that Trump actually had to remind his supporters, “No, no! No, no, remember! I love him, he’s a good man!”
But the crowd felt otherwise and continued to boo throughout Graham’s short speech praising their messiah, who he called “the most qualified man to be president [of the] United States.”
The other day, she accused Republicans of trying close down fertility clinics and strip away access to birth control. This didn’t sit well with Graham who, for the first time in over a decade, hasn’t introduced a federal abortion ban in the Senate.
In every one of the last five full sessions of Congress, dating back to 2013, the confirmed bachelor proposed legislation to outlaw abortions after 15 or 20 weeks.
But after the fallout from the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to strike down Roe, and the chaos surrounding the Alabama Supreme Court’s recent ruling on frozen embryos, he seems to have lost interest in this particular fight. His exact words when speaking to the media recently were, “I haven’t even thought about it.”
Donalds says IVF helps couples “breed great families.”
In an appearance on Fox News this week, Graham blasted Clinton for her remarks. Then he railed against her on Twitter.
“The last thing Republicans will do is shut down fertility clinics and limit access to legal birth control,” he tweeted afterwards. “@HillaryClinton, your latest attacks are BS and they are not going to work.”
This prompted Clinton to reply, “Notice Sen. Graham’s phrasing here: ‘legal birth control.’ On abortion rights, Republicans spent years whittling away legality and access until Trump’s MAGA Supreme Court majority blew the whole house down. They think we’re going to trust them now?”
Notice Sen. Graham's phrasing here: "legal birth control."
On abortion rights, Republicans spent years whittling away legality and access until Trump's MAGA Supreme Court majority blew the whole house down.
Abortion rights have won in every election since Roe was overturned and Democrats are hoping to use the issue to win again in November. Between that and Trump’s weakness as a general election candidate, the 2024 election appears to be theirs to lose.
