The Lindsey Graham in the wake of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot was a lot like the Lindsey Graham of early 2016: against Donald Trump. The night of the attack, the visibly frazzled South Carolina senator said he was “done” with the outgoing president. Graham flip-flopped, of course, but details keep emerging about his former attempts to throw Trump to the wolves (ditto his insurrectionist supporters). Now there’s even audio of him making a very poor prediction.
Lordy, a new Lindsey Graham Audio tape
I have a feeling this isn’t the last tape from Lindsey Graham and Trump…pic.twitter.com/3AH2C0TJEk
— Republicans against Trumpism (@RpsAgainstTrump) May 11, 2022
The recording comes from the authors of This Will Not Pass, the latest explosive Trump exposé, this one from New York Times reporters Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns. Previously Martin and Burns produced audio directly contradicting Kevin McCarthy’s claim that he didn’t say bad things about Trump. (There was also a clip of him refusing to invoke the 25th amendment, but only because it would “take too long.”) The pair’s latest audio bombshell isn’t too damning. But it does show where one of the leading Republican’s head was at before he decided to run back into Trump’s arms.
“We’ll actually come out of this thing stronger. Moments like this reset. People will calm down. People will say, ‘I don’t want to be associated with that.’ This is a group within a group,” Graham told reporters not long after the Capitol attack. “What this does, there will be a rallying effect for a while, the country says, ‘we are better than this.’”
Graham even predicted Joe Biden would unite the country. “He’ll be maybe the person to have, right?” Graham said at the time. “I mean, how mad can you get at Joe Biden?”
He even theorized what Trump did wrong. “He’s misjudged the passion, he plays the TV game and he went too far here,” Graham said. “That rally didn’t help, talking about primarying Liz [Cheney]. He created a sense of revenge.”
In other words, it’s becoming increasingly clear that the GOP was privately very excited to be rid of Trump for good. Of course, Graham was wrong on two fronts. The country didn’t heal in the wake of Jan. 6; it somehow got worse. And Graham, who once finally remembered how dangerous Trump can be, has apparently realized he’s fine with “revenge.”
(Via Raw Story)