Political chameleons “gonna chameleon.” Always. And no political chameleon has changed his stripes more often than U.S. senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina (although former governor and 2024 presidential candidate Nikki Haley is giving him a run for his money).
Graham – a notorious warmonger and profligate fiscal liberal – has evolved over the years from a stalwart #NeverTrumper into one of former U.S. president Donald Trump‘s most vocal allies of convenience. That transformation earned him the ire of many of his former mainstream media allies, but it got Graham across the finish line in his 2020 election in Trump-friendly South Carolina – which was the whole point.
Lately, though, Graham has found the whole shape-shifting gig a lot harder to pull off … especially as he does his level best to start World War III with Russian president Vladimir Putin. Last month, Graham was literally booed off the stage at a rally in Pickens, S.C. – just ten miles away from his birthplace.
Over the years, I have made no secret of my distaste for Graham’s slavish – and costly – brand of “neoconservatism,” referring to him as a “reckless, unrepentant warmonger.” Not to mention a hypocritical one at that.
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This week, Graham could find himself in hot water tied to another entanglement … specifically, alleged efforts to overturn the disputed results of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.
Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis is preparing to seek indictments against Trump – and likely others – for allegedly breaking Peach State laws as part of an alleged attempt to overturn those results.
Is Graham on her list?
To recap: According to the official tally, U.S. president Joe Biden defeated Trump in Georgia by a margin of only 11,779 votes (or 0.23 percent of the 4.93 million ballots cast). That narrow margin secured the state’s sixteen electoral votes for Biden – but Trump and his allies didn’t go down without a fight.
During a phone call on January 2, 2021, Trump did his level best to convince Georgia secretary of state Brad Raffensperger to help him “find 11,780 votes” to sway the outcome of the election.
That effort was unsuccessful … and Biden was eventually certified as the victor in Georgia.
(Click to View)
How does Graham connect to this saga? The veteran U.S. senator was subpoenaed in connection with the case for allegedly urging state officials to “reexamine certain absentee ballots cast in Georgia in order to explore the possibility of a more favorable outcome for former President Donald Trump,” according to court filings.
The 67-year-old politician participated in one phone call with Raffensperger in which he allegedly implored the secretary of state to reject mail-in votes from counties which had elevated rates of questionable signatures.
“It sure looked like he was wanting to go down that road,” Raffensperger told Amy Gardner of The Washington Post, stating his office lacked the authority to do what Graham was asking him to do.
Prosecutors in Willis’ office have been prepping for the presentation of evidence to the grand jury this week. In fact, sources familiar with the situation say her prosecutors are staying in hotels as opposed to their homes – and wearing bulletproof vests on the advice of their beefed up security teams.
It’s about to get real, in other words …
“They’re presenting evidence regarding Trump to the grand jury this week,” a source close to one of the prosecutors told this news outlet.
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RELATED | HUNTER BIDEN PLEA DEAL COLLAPSES
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Trump was indicted earlier this month on charges tied to the January 6, 2021 rioting at the U.S. capitol in Washington, D.C. In that case, special prosecutor Jack Smith charged the former president with four felony counts including conspiracy to defraud the United States as well as conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding. Smith previously indicted Trump in a separate federal case in Florida – one stemming from the former president’s alleged mishandling of classified documents. Prior to that, in late March, Trump was indicted by New York district attorney Alvin Bragg on state charges related to payouts to multiple mistresses during the 2016 presidential campaign.
Trump has denied any wrongdoing in Georgia – saying the real scandal was the rigged vote he sought to overturn.
“Would someone please tell the Fulton County grand jury that I did not tamper with the election,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. “The people that tampered with it were the ones that rigged it, and sadly, phony Fani Willis – who has shockingly allowed Atlanta to become one of the most dangerous cities anywhere in the world – has no interest in seeing the massive amount of evidence available, or finding out who these people that committed this crime are. She only wants to ‘Get Trump.'”
Trump added he would “be happy to show” evidence of election rigging to the grand jury.
“They are the slime that should be prosecuted,” Trump added, noting he believes the timing of the indictments is aimed at the 2024 election cycle.
As noted in our latest Palmetto Political Stock Index, the flurry of criminal allegations has not hurt Trump’s standing with GOP voters. If anything, the indictments have solidified him as the presumptive Republican nominee … which may have been the point.
“Trump’s polling in the crowded Republican field remains remarkably high,” we noted in our latest index. “In fact, it seems the more charges are heaped on him, the higher his numbers go.”
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR ...
Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and seven children.
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13 comments
Graham was so happy to make those calls for his beloved Trump,,even bragging, how can he deny anything now!
Lyndsey flipped on Trump a long time ago. He couldn’t wait to bury Trump under the jail.
Graham absolutely broke the law when interfering in Georgia election. If he isn’t indicted, it will the latest stains on the concept of no American being above the law.
How is Hunter Biden a “related” story to this blatant attempt at coercing election officials to throw the election to Trump? The knee jerk reaction to run something about HB every time the noose gets tighter on the DJT indictments is an almost comical attempt to divert.
Will Folks may need to see a therapist over his Hunter Biden obsession. Along with his Nikki, Nancy, and women on leashes obsessions.
Hunter Biden is their only hope that they can false equivalency Brandon.
The biggest L out of the Hunter stuff is the fact that prominent Republicans voluntarily and eagerly downloaded his nudes and share them at any opportunity they get, in public, and history will never forget.
“If we nominate Trump, we will get destroyed…….and we will deserve it.”
Do you know how much evidence there is the Georgia election was rigged by anyone other than Republicans? ZERO. NADA, ZILCH, NONE.
Trump and his criminal cohorts, concocted a scheme to illegally overturn the Georgia election and solicited numerous Republicans to conspire with them in this criminal enterprise including the Governor and Lt. Governor of Georgia. Some, like Lindsay and the fake electors, took them up on the offer and some like the Pardue and Raffensperger did not. Those who did will now face trial, where they will have an opportunity to defend their actions in a court of law, where only provable facts matter. Maybe Lindsay will avoid indictment, but I don’t see why he should, there is undeniably probable cause to believe he conspired with the former president, to illeaglly overturn the election.
Democrats gave Republicans every chance to rid themselves of Trump for years now.
Two impeachments and the Jan 6th Commission and Republicans moved heaven and earth to cover up for the scumbag.
So here they are….many are about to get indicted with him with only their stupid selves to blame.
*yawns*
Lyndsey is nursing on Trumps “mushroom” !
You know of all the crazy things Trump has said, one thing is good for the country. He he firmly believes Kamala Harris can refuse to certify the election if he wins.
With other Republican state attorney generals, South Carolina Attorney General, Alan Wilson, joined a lawsuit filed by Texas AG, Ken Paxton, to overturn the election results in Pennsylvania, and a few states, that went to Biden.
If Trump wanted Hillary locked up, then he should’ve hired her.