Graham Stands His Ground
Senator Lindsey Graham has bounced between being an antagonist to President Trump and sharing a golf cart with him. Senator Graham was present in the room where the President was accused of calling Haiti, El Salvador and African nations “shitholes”. During the last episode of the Whiskey Congress podcast, Steve, our guest (Mike Wood Jr) and I all agreed that the use of vulgar language in an official meeting is essentially irrelevant. However, the statements and inferences that followed are indicative of the President’s feelings on immigrants and to some degree race in America. Perhaps of equal importance, is the fact that some Republicans are denying that the President uttered the words that caused so much controversy. While the words may be over-hyped, the truth is not. President Trump either said them, or he didn’t and the Republican lawmakers who will not acknowledge what seems to be a verifiable fact should be called what they are…”liars”. In contrast, Senator Graham should be commended for speaking the truth even if it is politically risky.
WASHINGTON — Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told a South Carolina newspaper on Monday that his “memory hasn’t evolved” about the White House meeting in which President Donald Trump reportedly referred to African nations as “shithole countries.”
In an interview with The Post and Courier, Graham seemed to challenge the accounts of fellow Republican Sens. Tom Cotton of Arkansas and David Perdue of Georgia, who attended the bipartisan meeting last Thursday with Graham and have given shifting defenses of the president’s comments. After initially staying quiet, the two Trump-allied lawmakers issued a joint statement the day after the meeting saying they did not “recall” what the president had said. But in separate TV interviews Sunday, they outright denied that Trump had made the comments.
“I know what was said and I know what I said,” Graham said Monday.
Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., who attended the meeting, said Friday that Trump did use the vulgar language as reported and described the president as saying “things which were hate-filled, vile and racist.” He reiterated his version of events to reporters on Monday, according to Chicago TV station WMAQ, saying “I stand behind every word I said.”
While Graham has not directly confirmed Trump’s remarks, he issued a statement praising Durbin after the lawmaker spoke to reporters Friday. Graham also noted he told Trump in the meeting that America is “not defined by its people, but by its ideals.”
In a separate interview with the TV station WIS on Monday, Graham urged Trump to find a “bipartisan solution” for about 800,000 young undocumented immigrants who are facing deportation after a White House decision to cut off their protections by ending the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
“It’s going to take you, Mr. President, working with Republicans and Democrats to get this done,” Graham said. “It’s not going to be done on Twitter, by tweeting, it’s going to be done by talking and understanding.”
