South Carolina’s Republican senator Lindsey Graham warned of retribution against Democrats amid Donald Trump’s ongoing criminal cases.
In an interview with CNN’s Dana Bash on Sunday, Graham, a staunch Trump ally, said without evidence: “The Democrats keep calling President Trump a felon. Well, be careful what you wish for. I expect there will be an investigation of Biden’s criminality at the border.”
In May, Trump was found guilty on all 34 counts of falsifying business records in a historic criminal hush-money trial that involved adult film star Stormy Daniels and Trump’s attempts to influence the 2016 presidential elections.
Speaking to Bash, Graham continued: “This country is going to have a reset here and using [Joe] Biden’s standard of glorifying political prosecutions, a Pandora’s box has been opened. Whether he steps down or not, accountability is coming to him.”
Bash, who co-hosted the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump earlier this week, replied: “Sir, you just warned of retribution.”
In response, Graham said: “Yeah. I warned that the Pandora’s box opened by the Democrats is going to be applied here.” The senator went on to point to the Biden administration’s handling of the border crisis, saying: “I think the criminality of the Biden border policy should be looked at.”
He also pointed to the Democrat-led House select committee investigating the January 6 insurrection, saying: “A January 6 committee looking at what happened on January 6, I hope there’ll be a committee looking at border policies that have led to the rape and murder of lots of Americans.”
In Sunday’s interview, Graham also defended Trump’s performance during Thursday’s presidential debate in which Trump repeatedly lied while Biden stumbled through his words.
“I thought he had a very good night … At the end of the day, he was strong, he was clear, he was coherent,” said Graham.
Bash went on to ask Graham if he felt comfortable with Trump’s response to her question on whether he would accept the 2024 election results, regardless if he wins or not. During the debate, Trump said he will accept the results if they are “fair and legal”.
In response, Graham replied: “Yeah, I mean, what are you supposed to say? ‘You all accept it no matter if I thought I was cheated?’ I’m not worried about him accepting the results of the election. I’m worried about between now and November. Does Iran get a nuclear weapon because they think Joe Biden is so compromised, he is not going to do anything about it?”
During Thursday’s presidential debate, Bash and her co-host, Jake Tapper, took a hands-off approach in factchecking statements from Trump and Biden, which prompted criticisms towards CNN for letting false claims – mostly from Trump – go unchallenged.
Graham, nevertheless, hailed the network, telling Bash: “You all did a good job. You let him talk. You’re not factcheckers. You let him talk.”
