I don’t know if Lindsey Graham has ever been more inappropriate or more fatuous than he’s being now. Ukrainian president Zelensky went up to Capitol Hill where he was treated very disrespectfully by the House and lectured by Graham in the Senate:
“The key is to get the commander in chief involved in the negotiations. Sen. Murphy — I have no confidence he’s ever going to get a deal we can live with, because he’s worried about selling it to the left,” Graham said. “The commander in chief — if there’s a deal to be made — is going to have to get involved in the negotiations. It’s his job above all others.”
The South Carolina Republican, who has been part of border discussions in recent weeks, also complained that Murphy has been “very unhelpful” and that his “attitude about what’s going on is off base.”
“We’re not holding the border hostage. We’re trying to protect the American people,” Graham said.
Murphy declined to comment directly on Graham’s remarks, saying only that, “You’ll have to ask Sen. Graham about that.”
Murphy and Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) have kept up discussions toward a possible deal, but one does not appear imminent. Lankford told reporters Monday that he did not foresee an agreement being reached before the end of the week, and that because the House is scheduled to adjourn then for the Christmas break, the talks will be kicked into January.
Discussions in recent days have centered between Lankford, Murphy, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) and, most recently, White House chief of staff Jeff Zients.
“We continue to make progress. We’ve made serious proposals that put us outside of our Democratic comfort zone. We need Republicans to stretch, and if they do, we can get there,” the Connecticut Democrat said. “There’s been significant back-and-forth.”
Graham just wants to make Biden personally capitulate to a draconian border compromise so he can split the Democratic party which is already split on aid to Israel and Ukraine. He’s not even being subtle about it. It’s a very sticky wicket and I can’t predict how it’s going to come out.
But that’s politics. The rudeness of cornering Zelensky with this monumental drivel is outrageous:
Graham’s comments also came after he explained that he asked the final question to Zelensky during his meeting with senators Tuesday morning. As part of that question, Graham told the Ukrainian president that he feared he was being “used” by Democrats.
“I like him and I admire him,’ Graham told reporters. “I said, ‘You’ve done everything anybody can ask of you. This is not your problem here. You didn’t make this problem. It will affect you and affect the whole world, but policy choices matter.’
“They made policy choices for three years to lead to a nightmare on the border. They need to change their policy choices,” he continued.
Graham added that his stance was only bolstered by recent comments made by FBI Director Christopher Wray that he sees “blinking red lights everywhere I turn” that could portend a possible major terror attack in the U.S.
“I told President Zelensky my No. 1 obligation is to secure my country as well as help yours, and I feel like my country’s border policies are an immediate threat to the safety of the American people,” he said.
Yeah. Comparing the perennial American problem of immigration with the invasion of Ukraine is insulting to everyone concerned. When Mexico starts lobbing missiles into Washington DC maybe it might make sense.
It’s just stupid MAGA BS and Graham knows better. But to spout this silly propaganda at the Ukrainian president is just embarrassing.
The ramifications of this are huge. Former Estonian President Toomas Ilves was on deadline White House earlier today and he said in response to Ali Velshi’s question about Russian expansion due to this resurgent threat to NATO which had receded when we mercifully voted out Orange Julius Caesar:
I would say that until recently people in this part of the world were not so concerned because we had complete and utter with in NATO and the United States. now recent developments and some of the rhetoric coming out in the presidential debates that we were watching closely and some of the statements of various senators, makes us rethink this. You know, just today or yesterday, here on the border with Russia, across from Estonia, the government of Russia put up a big billboard with a bear saying “Russia Knows No Borders.” That’s a pretty clear message there.
Yes, it’s a pretty clear message.
Now if the US thinks it makes sense in a global economy and an existential threat of climate change to abruptly withdraw from the world and stop being a guarantor of military help for our allies, I am skeptical that anyone has thought that through and understands what that would mean for America’s own security. But I would certainly hope that if they do this that our military spending will be slashed to bone as well. If all we need is a defensive force to ensure that our own homeland is secure then there is no need at all for all that.
On the other hand, our new possible Emperor, Donald Trump, has promised to build us an impenetrable dome above the whole country and I’d guess that will cost some money. But Trump will just handle that like he always does. He just won’t pay.
I shouldn’t joke about this. You don’t have to go back very far in history to see that the combination of a divided left and a fanatical right generally leads to no good. This situation is no good.