- A new audio has leaked in which Senator Lindsey Graham reveals her feelings for Biden and Trump.
- In a post-Capitol riot interview, Graham is heard saying he thinks Biden is the “best man” he has.
- Graham is also heard criticizing Trump in another tape, saying he was “playing the TV game” and “going too far.”
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New audio tapes have surfaced of Senator Lindsey Graham, a prominent ally of Trump who criticized Trump and praised Biden after the January 6 Capitol uprising.
The tapes were released on CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360” during a segment of an interview with New York Times reporters Alex Burns and Jonathan Martin. Martin interviewed Graham on Jan. 6 shortly after the uprising, and the senator spoke candidly about then-elected President Joe Biden and former President Trump.
In the first audio clip, Graham said he thought everyone would “get out of it.”
“Moments like this are reset. People will calm down. People will say, “I don’t want to be associated with this,” Graham said. “It’s a group-by-group. What it does will have a unifying effect for a while, (then) the country says, ‘We’re better than that.’
He was then asked if Biden would help make what Graham said happen: “Completely.”
“He may be the best man,” Graham is heard saying. I mean, how angry can you be with Joe Biden?
A second audiotape released by CNN heard Graham say in an interview after the uprising that he believed Trump “did not judge his passion” by criticizing the former president’s actions.
“He’s playing the TV game and he’s gone too far here,” Graham said. “This rally did not help, talking about the choice of Liz (Cheney). He created a sense of revenge.”
Graham was probably referring to part of Trump’s speech at Ellipse on January 6, 2021, when Trump suggested that his supporters “give the hell out” to those who are not fighting for the cancellation of the election.
Graham is known to be a loyal ally of the former president. However, Graham may have had a more complex view of Trump. In Burns and Martin’s new book, It Won’t Pass, they claim that Graham threatened to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office during the Capitol Rebellion. Trump later mocked Graham, calling him a “progressive senator from South Carolina” during a fundraising dinner in March in Mar-a-Lago.
Graham also publicly criticized Trump for pardoning Capitol rebels, calling Trump’s idea “inappropriate.” This then led Trump to call Graham RINO, an insult from the Republican Party, which means “Republican by name only.” The term is often used against Trump critics such as Republican Liz Cheney and Adam Kinsinger.
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