WASHINGTON _ Sen. Lindsey Graham says he doesn't care what people think of him, but he wants people to know he thinks he's been treated unfairly.
For one of the most polarizing politicians in the era of President Donald Trump, expecting any sympathy from Democrats is a tough ask.
Especially as the South Carolina Republican, in the middle of Trump's Senate impeachment trial, is actively encouraging a future investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden.
Graham has a history of working well with Democrats. But he has also gone from calling then-candidate Trump a "race-baiting, xenophobic religious bigot" to now referring to the president as "a friend."
Graham went out of his way last week to shake hands with House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., the lead impeachment manager for Democrats, complimenting his presentation on the Senate floor during the trial.
He has also called for the president's acquittal and dismissed the need to hear from witnesses before the trial began, advising the White House legal team on strategy and singling out Democratic colleagues by name on Twitter as not "remotely interested in fairness."
In a recent interview in his Capitol Hill office, Graham said he has not changed since Trump's election. He said he thought Democrats had created a double standard where Republicans could be attacked but Democrats must not be scrutinized.
"When I hear they're disappointed in me, what the hell do you expect?" Graham said. "What do you expect me to do? Help you, and when you want to destroy one of our guys, sit quietly?"
In Graham's view, he ought to get more credit for supporting Robert Mueller, the former White House special counsel who investigated Russian interference in the 2016 election and whether anyone connected with the Trump campaign was involved.
The inquiry found no evidence the campaign "conspired or coordinated" with the Russians and could not make a determination as to whether Trump sought to obstruct justice to thwart the investigation.
"For me, this is tough politics," Graham said of his decision to join Democrats on a bill last year to protect Mueller from being fired by Trump.
He added that if it hadn't been for him and his colleagues putting pressure on Trump to let Mueller do his job, Trump might have gone ahead and fired him.
"Only God knows what the president would have done," Graham said.
Now, Graham wonders why Democrats aren't taking a similar political risk for him.
Specifically, he wants to know why Democrats won't agree to look into whether Biden pushed for the removal of Ukraine's top prosecutor to protect his son, Hunter, who at that time was a board member of a Ukraine-based company that was under a corruption investigation.
"I do the Mueller thing," Graham said. "And now ... I can't get any Democrat to even suggest there may be a reason you want to look at this. That, to me, just blows my mind."
Graham also has a message for Biden, a 2020 Democratic presidential contender who recently said he's "embarrassed" for his longtime colleague.
"Here's what I would say to Joe: 'What do you want me to do, man? You want me to live in a world where you can go after people and beat the hell out of the president?'"
Graham paused briefly before deciding to invoke the name of his close friend, the late Arizona Republican senator who was deeply critical of the president. "If John McCain were around," Graham continued, "I think he would be one of the champions of the idea that people expect a lot from us."
Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., who worked with Graham on the bill to protect Mueller, credited his Republican colleague for "never stepping back, even when President Trump was demonstrably agitated by the bill."
But it is unlikely that Graham, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, will win Democrats over by agitating for a formal inquiry into the Bidens, despite insisting it is "not comfortable for me" to go after a friend.
Democrats say the allegations against Biden are not only discredited, they are meant to distract from the allegations against Trump. The impeachment articles against the president stem from a whistleblower report and public testimony asserting he withheld military aid from Ukraine in an effort to pressure Kyiv to investigate the Bidens.
They also say Graham's comparisons between protecting Mueller and investigating Biden are a stretch, and it's unreasonable to expect bipartisan cooperation on that front.
"That's completely different," said Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin of Illinois.
"I'm more than willing to continue cooperating," Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., agreed, "but bipartisan cooperation on one bill doesn't mean that we have to agree on everything."
Despite partisan divisions, Graham sees professional relationships with Democrats moving forward.
He told McClatchy that as soon as the Senate trial is over, he will go back to working with Coons on legislation to keep troops in Africa, Blumenthal on a measure relating to best business practices and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island on a climate bill.
All three Democrats confirmed they would be glad to continue collaborating with Graham on legislation.
Coons, however, said Graham's move toward a greater embrace of the president has not gone unnoticed on his side of the aisle.
"If you compare the statements made on the campaign trail with statements over the last year or two, there is a fairly striking development in my colleague's views of our president," Coons said, adding that "it has gotten harder in the last couple years" to work together.
Graham said that anyone who thinks he wasn't a conservative Republican before Trump's election just wasn't paying attention.
"Meghan McCain got this right: The only time you get praised as a Republican is when you're taking on the Republicans," Graham told McClatchy, referring to John McCain's daughter. "If you want to get a lot of mainstream media attention, be a maverick. And I do that on occasion."
He said he would be supportive of Trump but also speak his mind.
"I'll be doing my fair share of standing up for President Trump and bopping him in the face, and doing my best to go after (Democrats) when they attack the president, and sell his agenda for the next four years."
But Graham said he didn't expect things to change in his dealings with Democrats.
"No good deed goes unpunished around here," he said.
