BEDFORD, N.H. — Sen. Lindsey Graham has never sent an email because “it’s a disaster in the making,” he told the Washington Examiner on Sunday.
“I learned early on it’s a disaster in the making. It really is,” Graham said. “Do you think [Hillary Clinton] wishes she hadn’t emailed now?”
Graham, a South Carolina Republican who is testing the waters for a bid for president, has been a fierce critic of Clinton’s use of private email at the State Department to conduct official business. In an interview with the Examiner last week, he called the practice “unacceptable.”
But Graham himself doesn’t have much experience with the medium, he revealed during his first swing through New Hampshire, a key primary state.
“I don’t email,” Graham said on NBC’s “Meet The Press” on Sunday. “You can have every email I’ve ever sent. I’ve never sent one.”
The response harkened back to the 2008 presidential campaign, when Barack Obama ran an ad criticizing John McCain as out-of-touch for being technologically illiterate, including not using email. When the ad was replayed for Graham, he remembered it — but he said he isn’t worried about a similar line of attack being used against him.
“We have the most technologically savvy president in the history of the country,” Graham said. “How’s that working out?”
“I don’t think the country’s going to make their decision based on who emails,” Graham added. “It’s sort of what you know.”
Graham himself does not email not only to prevent political missteps, he said, but also out of personal preference.
“Not emailing back and forth all days gives me the chance to contemplate what I want to do,” Graham said. “And if I want to talk to somebody, I’ll make that decision. You tell me what you want to know, and I’ll call you when I’m ready to talk to you.”
“It’s a filter,” Graham added. “To me it’s just way too much noise out there.”
