Lawrence O’Donnell does not have many kind things to say about Lindsey Graham. And on Monday night, the MSNBC host did not hold back when the conversation turned to the South Carolina senator, who made a dark prediction over the weekend when he issued what seemed to be both a warning and a threat that “if there is a prosecution of Donald Trump for mishandling classified information after the Clinton debacle … there will be riots in the street.” It was this ominous statement that led O’Donnell to make a painfully unflattering comparison between Graham and Nazi sympathizer Vidkun Quisling.
As Raw Story reports, O’Donnell did not mince words on Monday night, when he described Graham as hitting “rock bottom.” And while he noted that the term is usually used to describe an alcoholic who needs to find their way to sobriety, O’Donnell says that “there is no cure for what has sunk Lindsey Graham to his own, very dangerous rock bottom,” which the commentator sees as an unprecedented act.
Senator Lindsey Graham did what no senator in our lifetimes has done. Senator Lindsey Graham said something this weekend that you’ve never heard another United States senator say. Lindsey Graham said something that no other senator has ever said in the history of the United States Senate. Lindsey Graham actually said: If you prosecute a friend of mine, there will be riots in the streets. Those were his words.
The sad part, as O’Donnell noted, is that the friend Graham was referring to was Trump, who the host described as “an actual friend to no one, as Lindsey Graham so tragically knows.”
In fact, Graham was once one of Trump’s fiercest critics. Ahead of the 2016 presidential election, the senator urged his fellow Republicans to steer clear of the reality show real estate developer. In a 2015 interview with CNN, Graham poked fun at Trump’s political slogan by noting that the best way to make America great again was by telling “Donald Trump to go to hell.” He went on to describe the future president as a “a race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot,” and stated that “He doesn’t represent my party.”
Fast forward to January 6, 2021: In the wake of the insurrection, Graham was caught on tape criticizing Trump and praising Joe Biden. When asked about his thought-to-be-private comments, Graham had the audacity to say he was “wrong.”
To O’Donnell, Graham’s actions make him worse than a traitor — they make him what Winston Churchill would have called a “Quisling,” a reference Vidkun Quisling, a Norwegian military officer who conspired with the Nazis during World War II to promote fascism to his soldiers and people.
“The big difference and important difference between Lindsey Graham and Norway’s original Quisling is that Vidkun Quisling was a fascist long before the Nazis invaded his country,” O’Donnell said. “When Quisling was collaborating with the Nazis, he was a true believer. Would that Winston Churchill were still with us so we could prevail upon his wisdom to judge for us which is worse. Quisling the true believer or Lindsey Graham, the Quisling.”
You can watch O’Donnell’s full comments above.
(Via Raw Story)