Lindsey Graham sat down today with Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor in chief of The Atlantic magazine, during a multi-day festival put on by the publication. Graham has been no friend of Americans, other than Trump supporters, since he went off on a shouting rant during testimony from both Dr. Christine Blasey Ford and Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh on September 27 before the Senate Judiciary.
Since then, Graham has made no new friends, either. He has appeared on television mocking the proceedings, he told 60 Minutes‘ Scott Pelley that he would vote to confirm Kavanaugh regardless of the results of the FBI investigation, and he even changed his social media profile picture to one of him smiling and standing with Kavanaugh.
He seems determined to make his concrete position known.
But the South Carolina Senator decided to one-up the President in terms of disgusting remarks during his speech to the Atlantic Festival. Goldberg asked Graham what he thought about Trump’s mockery of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford during a rally for supporters in Mississippi on Tuesday night, and what he might say to the President about it. Graham wasted no time before defending Trump:
Everything he said was factual. He’s frustrated his nominee has been treated so badly. Here’s what’s personally degrading: This is what you get when you go through a trailer park with a hundred-dollar bill.”
Spectators gasped, but Graham wasn’t done:
President Trump went through a factual rendition that I didn’t particularly like and I would tell him to knock it off. You’re not helping. But it can be worse. You can actually kill somebody’s cat and puncture their tires to get them to shut up.”
After clarifying that Graham was talking about claims of what happened to Bill Clinton’s accusers during his presidency, Goldberg asked if Americans should be happy that Trump’s comments weren’t worse than they actually were, and Graham doubled down:
Whether you like it or not, I really don’t care. Here’s the point, I have seen what happened to these women [Bill Clinton’s accusers] in 1998 that came forward. I don’t like what the President said last night. I’m the first person to say ‘I want to hear from Dr. Ford.’ I thought she was handled respectfully. I thought Kavanaugh was treated like crap.”
The crowd once again booed the defiant Senator, and perhaps he should listen, because that’s where the majority of America is right now.
Watch the shocking exchange here:
Featured image via screen capture
