Could President Trump rattle off the leaders of the Islamic State and the rest of the world’s most dangerous terrorist groups?
That was the question put to Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., on Wednesday by an audience member at the American Enterprise Institute. But the senator, a sometimes golf partner of the president and member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the answer is not important.
“I don’t think it really matters if he can tell you the name of terrorist leaders, who are dying pretty frequently,” Graham said.
The senator had visited the think tank to talk national security and the first person to stand up during a question-and-answer session was Fred Boenig, a radio personality in Pennsylvania who runs the liberal-leaning Daily Ripple website.
“I’m also a Gold Star dad,” said Boenig, referring to parents whose children have died while serving in the military. “I had three other children as well serve in the military. One of the three was hit with a hand grenade and went back and did a second tour in Afghanistan.”
He told Graham he has been a fan of the senator for years.
“I’m expecting an honest answer from you and I think my family would deserve it,” Boenig said. “If you were out playing golf with the president and you leaned over and said ‘Sir, could you tell me the name of the leader of ISIS, al Qaeda, the Taliban, Boko Haram or the leader of the group those four special [operations] soldiers [in Niger]?’ Do you think he could actually do that?”
Graham is one of the few senators who appears to have forged a close relationship with Trump and he has also been a key defender. But he has not shied from being critical, such as privately standing up to Trump after the president’s alleged “shithole” comment and blasting the Trump administration for sending terror suspects to criminal courts.
“I don’t know if I could give you the answer to all of them too,” Graham told Boenig. “But here’s what I would tell your family, he knows they are bad and he wants people in your family who are fighting to have more capability to go after them.”
Graham said the president is determined to build up the military, which defense hawks say it suffering from years of flat budgets and high operations tempos.
