Gripas Yuri/Abaca/ZUMA
South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham used to be dismissive of Donald Trump—like other Republicans who thought Candidate Trump was a flash in the pan, an aberration to be laughed off or ridiculed. In 2015, Graham appeared on the channel he’s called “fake news,” CNN. “There’s only one way to make America great again,” he said. “Tell Donald Trump to go to hell.”
As Trump’s violent mob descended onto the Capitol on January 6, many of his chief enablers have tried to gaslight their way into back into America’s good graces—including Graham. After Biden’s convincing win in November 2020, Graham was a strident supporter of Trump’s big lie that there was widespread fraud, and became an outspoken attack dog for the president on cable television. “President Trump should not concede,” Graham said in November, before deploying full-blown “push back” and “fight” rhetoric leading up to the insurrection.
But after the violent siege last week, Graham apparently saw the light: “Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are lawfully elected,” he stated on the Senate floor, mere hours after the attack. Just days before, the senator was campaigning in Georgia and encouraging supporters to “send a signal the squad can understand.”
It’s an impressive amount of flagrant, self-serving flip-flopping. And perhaps President Obama said it best in his memoir, released at the end of last year: “Lindsey’s the guy who double-crosses everyone to save his own skin.”
We collected all the receipts. Watch this 5-act play above.
