(PresidentialWire.com)- Sen. Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, responded to comments he made on January 6, 2021, in which he praised Joe Biden, who was serving as President-Elect at the time. His remarks came shortly after a large group of people who supported Donald Trump stormed the Capitol.
CNN played an audio clip of Graham chatting on that day with a reporter from the New York Times named Jonathan Martin. Martin and his colleague Alexander Burns have collaborated on a new book titled This Shall Not Pass.
On the recording, the senator is heard praising Vice President Biden and predicting that the country will become “stronger.”
During the Jesse Watters Primetime show that aired on Thursday on Fox News, host Jesse Watters played the audio for Graham.
Watters was a bit bewildered. “Biden is the best person to have?” he asked.
“Do you really believe that?” he pressed.
A tiny chuckle escaped Graham’s mouth as the senator confessed, “I was wrong.”
He said he’d known Joe Biden for the past three decades and said that his presidency had been a complete and utter failure despite being a nice guy.
Graham expressed his optimism that Biden would bring the nation together in his speech.
Graham said that he hasn’t successfully brought the country together, but he has made it, so we are in danger. He said our economy is in shambles thanks to Biden, and every single bad guy is traveling around the world. That didn’t happen under Trump because the enemy feared him. He said nobody is afraid of Joe Biden, particularly overseas, and his policies are failing.
During the interview he gave to the Times on January 6, 2021, Graham also voiced his criticism of Trump.
The senator commented that the defeated Trump had “misjudged the people’s passion.”
He said Trump plays the TV game, and he went too far.
Graham was stunned that Trump talked openly about primarying Liz Cheney at his rallies. He said it was ineffective.
The senator said that Trump inspired a sense of vengeance through his words, and he disapproved.
Graham inspires distrust because he seems to have a different story depending on what audience he is addressing.
Here is a portion of the interview referenced above:
GRAHAM: We’ll actually come out of this thing stronger. Moments like this reset. It’ll take a while. People will calm down. People will say, “I don’t want to be associated with that.” This is a group within a group. What this does, it’ll be a rallying effect for a while, where the country says, “We’re better than this.”
MARTIN: And Biden will help that, right?
GRAHAM: Totally, he’ll be maybe the best person to have, right? I mean, how mad can you get at Joe Biden?
