Category: Graham

Powerful former Lindsey Graham donor backs his Democratic opponent, questions Graham’s ‘character’

Posted on by Walter Einenkel

Sen. Lindsey Graham’s vociferous attacks on Donald Trump in the months and weeks and days leading up to Trump’s November 2016 victory were well covered. Sen. Graham’s subsequent change of heart concerning Trump has also been a depressing reminder that integrity in Washington, D.C. is easily bought. But one big-time donor—and former member of Graham’s presidential campaign finance team—is fed up with spineless Republican operatives.

Richard Wilkerson, former chairman and president of Michelin’s Greenville, South Carolina-based North America operations, is fed up with Sen. Graham. A couple of weeks ago, Wilkerson told local news outlets that he was going to support Graham’s challenger, Jaime Harrison, for South Carolina’s Senate. At the time he said he believed Harrison was the right choice for South Carolina. Wilkerson based this on work the two had done to get stronger environmental regulations implemented in the state. On Monday, however, Wilkerson elaborated on his change of allegiance, penning a scathing op-ed in the Greenville News that really laid bare how low his opinion of Sen. Graham has fallen.

Wilkerson explained that while he does not normally make a habit of discussing his political opinions publicly, the reaction to the news that he was supporting Harrison over Graham made him feel he needed to explain. Citing the various reactions to his support of Harrison—which ranged from positive to classic conservative misdirection attempts at boycotting Michelin tires—he said, “I suppose this person did not know that I retired eight years ago, but seems to want to punish the outstanding working people at the company I love.” Wilkerson writes that his decision was a heartfelt one and something he had been dealing with since Trump took office.

Specifically, Wilkerson began to wonder about Sen. Graham in relation to Donald Trump’s continuous attacks on then Sen. John McCain: “What is the character of a man who will not defend his best friend? If he won’t defend John McCain, why would I expect him to defend any of us in South Carolina?” Wilkerson highlighted Sen. Graham’s retreat into divisive politics, his support of the tax scam for the richest among us, and his most recent attacks on public safety: viciously fighting against a federal extension that would expand unemployment benefits to the growing tens of millions of Americans out of work due to the Republican mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Wilkerson writes that he ended his support of Graham a couple of years ago, and wrote to the Senator telling him that “I no longer recognized him as the man I once supported.” 

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Sen. Graham has been facing this music for a couple of years now as time after time, he has failed every test of integrity and character that has come his way during this administration. Sen. Graham’s about face from the impeachment trial of former President Bill Clinton to the recent impeachment of Donald Trump was a never-ending stream of video clips exhibiting how flimsy Graham’s political “ideals” really are. His opponent, Harrison, has taken advantage of this hypocrisy in his campaign for Graham’s seat.

The political field is filled with all kinds of hypocrites. The pressure and speed with which someone will step all over their principles for power is a frequent topic of discussion on both sides of the political spectrum. In recent years, with the rise of Donald Trump to the top of the Grand Old Party, the degree to which Republicans have publicly compromised their previous positions and opinions has been staggering. While not surprising to those of us paying attention, it has been somewhat shocking to people who may not have realized how desperate for power so many people really are.

New clip of young Lindsey Graham talking about impeachment confirms his hypocrisy knows no bounds

Posted on by Walter Einenkel

Republican hypocrisy knows no bounds. It is hard to write this in new ways every few minutes, but it is the job of any honest person to acknowledge it. With Donald Trump’s impeachment trial playing out in the Senate and a Republican Party now actively colluding to cover up his crimes, old videos of very visible Republicans and Trump allies contradicting their current positions have started springing up.

Sen. Lindsey Graham is one of the more obvious examples because his 180-degree turnabout on executive powers, the abuse of those powers, and the subject of impeachment is arguably the most transparent example of how craven the Republican Party has become in its amoral quest for power. 

Dating back to Jan. 23, 1999, the clip below shows a younger Sen. Graham speaking at a press conference and basking in that camera limelight he so clearly desired and now requires.

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM: The law allows a different disposition if the offender comes before the court: “yes I’m guilty and I’m sorry and I throw myself on the mercy of the court.”  The sentence is usually different in a case like that versus someone who takes the legal system to the bitter end, and uses every twist and turn, and every gimmick, to try and beat the charges, for lack of a better word. So I’m going to argue that proportionality is something we need to consider, but is something that the defendant usually has to earn. And when you have someone who has flouted the law at every turn, then usually the sanctions are much more severe.

This was Sen. Graham’s attempt to dismiss the fact that the Republican Party’s “high crime” against then president Bill Clinton was that he obstructed justice in order to hide and lie about an extramarital affair he was having. The “proportionality” being brought to his mouth was the fact that none of it seemed very high crime-like, and Graham wanted to angle for the idea that Clinton’s lack of remorse showed an elitism and a belief he was above the law.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump has arguably committed high crimes not only every day that he has been president, but every day since he began running for president.

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Lindsey Graham goes into hiding just before Jerry Nadler calls him out—with receipts

Posted on by Walter Einenkel

Rep. Jerry Nadler spoke today during the Senate impeachment trial of Donald Trump. At one point during his statement, Nadler wanted to make it clear to everyone that the top Republicans in the room were full of shit, especially by their very own standards. Nadler played a clip of Sen. Lindsey Graham recorded during the 1999 Senate impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton giving his opinion of what a “high crime” is.

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM: What is a high crime? How about if an important person hurt somebody of low means. That’s not very scholarly, but I think it’s the truth. I think that’s what they meant by high crimes. Doesn’t even have to be a crime. It’s just using your office and you’re acting in a way that hurts people. You’ve committed a high crime.

Rough stuff. Graham seems to have known this would be coming, and, according to The New York Times, Graham slipped out a few minutes before Nadler played the clip. Because there is at least one constant in the universe: Republican cowardice.

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Lindsey Graham’s 2020 opponent releases impeachment statement using Lindsey Graham’s own exact quote

Posted on by Walter Einenkel

Jaime Harrison is running for Senate as a Democratic candidate hoping to unseat incumbent Lindsey Graham. Sen. Graham, like Sen. Mitch McConnell and the rest of the Republican Party stoolie squad, have fallen into line under the single-most transparently corrupt president in any of our lifetimes. As one of the big proponents of impeaching then President Bill Clinton, back in 1998, Sen. Graham has come under fire over the past year for how starkly contradictory his public statements today when compared to those from 1998. Harrison justifiably has decided to use Graham’s words against him, tweeting out from his personal account, Harrison posted a video, with “Official Impeachment Statement:” as the header. 

In the video we see Harrison speaking to the camera, reading a statement from a paper in his hands.

HARRISON: For the good of the nation, I think, it would serve us all well if we thought about this one idea. After we’re all dead and gone,

It is here, on the second sentence, that we can hear Sen. Graham’s wilting southern accent come up behind Harrison’s, as it is revealed to be Sen. Lindsey Graham’s statement on impeachment, from Dec. 22, 1998, to reporters somewhere underneath the Senate’s chambers.

GRAHAM: [continued] do you have something to present history that will withstand scrutiny, where everybody had a chance to have their say, in a reasonable way, in a focused way, so that history would judge us based on the facts, and based on a meaningful hearing not just on the political moment.

The image fades back to Harrison reading the end of Graham’s words.

HARRISON: [continued] And if we think about that, it’s very important to me that we leave behind a legacy that meets the model of American justice.

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It may be hard to believe but before Donald Trump there were many Republicans, like Sen. Graham, who used a patina of eloquence in order to drive home their bleak and cynical world views. Now that this mask has been ripped free and the soul of the Republican Party has been revealed to be the monstrous faces of bigotry and greed, it is hard to connect the senator from South Carolina, who spoke so eloquently about impeaching then president Bill Clinton for his extramarital affair, with the senator from South Carolina who has said in no uncertain terms that he will not even pretend to participate in an impartial trial concerning the abuses of power in the Executive Branch of government.

SemDem has been covering a lot of Harrison’s moves in his trip toward the Senate, and you can learn a lot more about Harrison’s chances and stances here.