Considering that South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham was once one of Donald Trump’s biggest critics in the Republican Party, everyone has been stunned by what’s happened to him over the last few months as Graham started portraying himself as Trump’s new BFF.
Graham, who’d been one of the most outspoken critics of the president and opposed many of the president’s moves, started regularly playing golf with the president and has become Trump’s biggest ally. We saw this in his defense of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh and the president’s national emergency fiasco.
No one knew what the hell had gotten into Graham, and people from both the Republican and Democrat parties have been stunned by the Senator’s new behavior. One politician, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), even suggested that Graham might have been “compromised.” But now thanks to a report in the New York Times, we may just have our answer. Journalist Mark Leibovich pointed out that Graham has opened up about why he started supporting Trump:
Graham reminded me that when McCain was facing re-election in 2010, he turned himself into ‘the most conservative member of the U.S. Senate.’ That was the race in which McCain claimed that he never embraced the ‘maverick’ label, and people were asking, ‘What happened to John McCain?’ Graham chuckled at the memory.
Graham would shortly head over to the Capitol for Trump’s State of the Union address, about which the president called him a few hours earlier, seeking input. ‘Should I go conciliatory or to-hell-with-it?’ Trump asked him, according to Graham. ‘What kind of tone should I take?’ In recounting this latest exchange, Graham shook his head and half shrugged. ‘I have never been called this much by a president in my life,’ he told me. His tone reflected a mixture of amazement and amusement, with perhaps a dash of awe. ‘It’s weird, and it’s flattering, and it creates some opportunity. It also creates some pressure.'”
Basically, Graham is following the pro-Trump attitudes of his state because it makes him look better to his constituents. He is also stroking his own personal interests in being Trump’s “go-to” for advice. That’s truly spineless and pathetic, but that’s exactly what we’ve come to expect from GOPers now.
Featured image via screen capture
