Lindsey Graham would “push his mother in front of a train” if he believes it would help him keep his senate seat in South Carolina, an unnamed Democratic senator told The Hill.
Graham, who railed against a budget deal last year because it did not including “a penny” for the war in Ukraine, voted against a $95 billion defense and foreign aid package with assistance for Ukraine last week.
Graham’s stunning about-face is frustrating some of his colleagues in the Senate who were counting on him to rally Republicans to support the package and pressure House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to bring the bill to the House floor for a vote.
A Democratic senator who worked on the package told The Hill that Graham’s shifting stance shows just how far he will go to keep his Senate seat.
“He got sucked into the Trump orbit, and he is so zealously about his own self-preservation in South Carolina that he literally would push his mother in front of a train to get to where he needs to be,” the senator said. “I hate to say it because I actually like him.”
Graham is actually very unpopular in South Carolina. A Winthrop University poll released last October shows that just 30% of South Carolina voters approve of his performance, 1% higher than President Joe Biden, 29%, which could explain why Graham is aligning himself so closely with Donald Trump who is popular in the state.
“I don’t know what he’s doing, because Lindsey is a super smart guy,” a Republican senator frustrated with Graham’s flip-flops said. “I don’t know whether he’s just trying to cover for Trump or what he’s doing, but I find it worrisome. He’s just so all over the map. It’s worrisome. I don’t know what to do.”
