2/20/21
Hours after a violent mob ransacked the Capitol last month in support of President Donald Trump, Sen. Lindsey O. Graham vowed he had seen enough. “Count me out,” Graham (R-S.C.) said in an impassioned speech on the Senate floor, adding that he was sad to see his journey with Trump end this way. In an interview two days later, Graham said “he’d never been so humiliated and embarrassed for the country” and spoke in palpable frustration over how his longtime ally handled the riot. Just weeks later, he is singing a different tune. Graham is set to visit the former president’s gilded Mar-a-Lago Club on Sunday to spend two days golfing and dining with Trump. He has spoken to the former president nearly daily since Jan. 6 — more frequently than any of his Republican colleagues in the Senate — and served as an informal adviser to Trump’s defense team during his Senate impeachment trial this month. Graham’s post-presidential embrace of Trump — which puts him squarely at odds with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) — is the latest twist in his on-again, off-again relationship with a man he once called a “kook” and warned could destroy the party. Graham is now positioning himself as a leader of the pro-Trump wing of a party that is increasingly divided about how to reckon with the divisive 45th president.
In the wake of the Capitol attack and the GOP’s losses of the House, Senate and White House, some in the Republican Party’s upper echelon are calling for a different path forward, worried that Trump’s toxic brand will prevent the party from winning general elections in 2022 and 2024. Former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley has said the party needs to turn the page on Trump, who she said has “fallen so far.” After voting to acquit Trump in the impeachment trial, McConnell delivered a scathing speech, calling him “practically and morally responsible” for the violence at the Capitol — and he has told allies he plans to never speak with Trump again. Longtime GOP operatives and people who know both men have said Graham is simply seeking to stay relevant and likes being close to powerful people. His critics say they remember a Graham who despised Trump and what Trump stood for — and was not so craven, in their view. One longtime McCain confidant said Graham is no longer in touch with many of his old friends. Amanda Loveday, a former executive director of the South Carolina Democratic Party who helped run a Biden super PAC in 2020, said it was frustrating to watch Graham continue to prop up Trump.
