Sen. Lindsey Graham said that President Trump’s accomplishments were “tarnished” by Wednesday’s siege on the Capitol, and suggested that the president was partly to blame for the breach.
“This president has been consequential from a conservative point of view. It’s been an amazing four years in terms of judges, securing the border, a vaccine in record time, deregulating the economy, cutting taxes, historic Mideast peace agreements, the destruction of the caliphate — on and on and on — was tarnished by yesterday,” Graham, a Republican senator from South Carolina and a top ally of the president, said in a press conference on Thursday.
“The president needs to understand that his actions were the problem, not the solution,” he said, adding later, “It was a self-inflicted wound.”
His comments came a day after pro-Trump protesters-turned-mob that was opposed to Congress counting Electoral College votes for President-elect Joe Biden rather than Trump breached the Capitol building while both the House and Senate debated an objection to Arizona’s results, forcing an hourslong lockdown. Graham described it as the “United States Capitol be[ing] taken over by domestic terrorists.”
Despite his criticism of Trump, Graham said that he did not agree with calls to remove the president by invoking the 25th Amendment. “I do not believe that’s appropriate at this point. I’m looking for a peaceful transfer of power,” he said.
And Graham said that he has no regrets about his support for Trump: “He’s done tremendous things for this country.”
As for the next 13 days of Trump’s presidency, Graham said that he would like to see Trump unify the country, in part by attending Biden’s inauguration.
“Things like that would go a long way,” he said. “I think we should talk about what he’s done, I think he should focus on some policy achievements.”
Graham said that he agrees with Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s call to fire the Senate’s sergeant-at-arms.
Graham called for a joint task force to be assembled “and spend all the time and money necessary to identify every person” who breached the Capitol and took a swipe at his Democratic colleagues who did not as forcefully condemn Black Lives Matter protests that swept the country last summer, mentioning nightly attacks on the federal courthouse in Portland.
“It’s good to hear everyone wanting prosecutions. Some are late to the dance,” Graham said.
Graham started to distance himself from Trump on Wednesday night.
“Trump and I, we had a hell of a journey,” he said on the Senate floor on Wednesday night, after lawmakers reconvened following the breach. “I hate it being this way. … All I can say is count me out. Enough is enough.”
Graham did not join with the handful of other lawmakers, including Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who objected to counting Electoral College votes from disputed states.
