Make up with Trump or be a failure, Republican colleague warns McConnell
Category: News & Politics
Via: john-russell • 4 years ago • 61 commentsBy: Lindsey Graham (the Guardian)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Lindsey Graham tells Senate majority leader he won't vote for someone 'that can't have a working relationship with Trump'
Mitch McConnell has been attacked by a key Trump ally and told to repair his relationship with the former US president or face failure as Senate Republican leader.
Republican House leader Kevin McCarthy refuses to cooperate with January 6 panel Read more
The move by Lindsey Graham comes amid a rumbling dispute between McConnell and Donald Trump, whose grip on the party remains near-total despite his impeachment for inciting the deadly Capitol attack in service of his lie that his defeat by Joe Biden was caused by electoral fraud.
In the most recent round of the contest, McConnell sided with Mike Rounds, a South Dakota senator who said Biden won the election.
"If you want to be a Republican leader in the House or the Senate, you have to have a working relationship with Donald Trump," Lindsey Graham, of South Carolina, told Fox News on Wednesday night.
Acquitted in his second impeachment trial, Trump remains free to run for office.
"He's the most consequential Republican since Ronald Reagan," Graham said. "It is his nomination if he wants it, and I think he'll get re-elected in 2024.
"I like Senator McConnell, he worked well with President Trump to get a bunch of judges including three supreme court justices on the bench, they got the tax cuts passed working together.
"But here's the question: can Senator McConnell effectively work with the leader the Republican party, Donald Trump?
"I'm not gonna vote for anybody that can't have a working relationship with President Trump, to be a team to come up with an America First agenda, to show the difference between us and liberal Democrats, to prosecute the case for Trump policies … because if you can't do that, you will fail. I will tell you that."
Graham's comment duly prompted criticism, one columnist calling it "a spineless cop-out".
It is after all a year since Graham apparently broke with Trump - a man he once said would "destroy" the Republican party.
After the Capitol attack, like many senior Republicans Graham seemed ready to abandon his idol.
"I'm out," he said.
But he was soon back in, telling Axios: "Donald Trump was my friend before the riot. I'm trying to keep a relationship with him after the riot. I still consider him a friend. What happened was a dark day in American history. And we're going to move forward."
He also called Trump "sort of a cross between Jesse Helms, Ronald Reagan and PT Barnum. I mean, just bigger than life."
Helms, a North Carolina senator, was a segregationist and "unabashed racist". PT Barnum was a politician, controversialist and circus impresario.
McConnell and Trump have been at odds for some time. Their latest spat began after Rounds said Trump lost in 2020. Asking if Rounds was "crazy or just stupid", Trump said: "I will never endorse this jerk again."
McConnell joined Mitt Romney of Utah and others in defending Rounds, McConnell telling CNN: "I think Senator Rounds told the truth about what happened in the 2020 election. And I agree with him."
John Thune of South Dakota - a contender to replace McConnell should it come to a vote - welcomed Rounds to "the club" of Republicans abused by Trump.
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I guess Lindsay Graham doesnt think Trump is irrelevant.
BTW Morning Joe had a graphic this morning of a new Quinnipiac poll that shows 69% of Republicans want Trump to run for president in 2024.
They probably also want him to lose so that they can break out their guns and start shooting their lefty neighbors. The country is a sick mess. Putin couldn’t have dreamed that his army of online trolls could ever have had such a fruitful downstream impact.
On Jan 6 2021, after Trump incited the riot, Graham said he was "done" with Trump. That lasted a day or two.
Remember the political ad where Lindsay destroyed his cell phone? I actually got a laugh out of that. It didn’t last long either.
"(Donald Trump) is a race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot. He doesn’t represent my party. He doesn’t represents the values that the men and women who wear the uniform are fighting for." - Lindsey Graham
After Trump grabbed Lindsey's deplorable base of voters by the pussy...
"No, I don't think he's a xenophobic, race-baiting, religious bigot..." - Lindsey Graham
Wouldn't worry so much about 'Lusty Lindsey'.
Aren't most of those awaiting trial for their participation in the insurrection at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021?
That is why it is important to bust Trump with the 14th amendment. That way he can never hold any office again.
69 make sense as they are always blowing each other to begin with.
Hate to be a nit picky pain in the ass, but McConnell isn't the Senate Majority Leader.
Other than that....I want McConnell to be a failure. I want him to lose his next election
As long as his Chinese wife has the support of her very influential Chinese family behind her, he will never lose. And he knows it. They are the reason for his ability to always win his election, even though most people in his state can't stand him. His election winning likely won't change as long he has the backing of his Chinese in-laws.
Anybody ever follow that Russian oligarch money that went into Kentucky for an alleged aluminum smelting plant? What ever happened with that?
I have no idea, bb-1, but, if I took a guess, it likely made its way into buying the election for McConnell. He has already sold his soul to the Devil for 40 pieces of silver long ago, why not Russia, China and any other country wanting to buy a piece of him for their own use.
One day in the not too distant future it will all come back to haunt him in the most embarrassing way.
Yeah except Martha Stewart went to prison for 'trading' $40,000 of her own money. Why do GOPERS always skate?
Always.
No you don't Lindsey. Don't be such a fool. It is people like you who enable Trump to even entertain running for office. It is people like you who have taken the GOP off course into the Trump-induced lunacy they are wallowing within.
Graham is the poster boy for "fair wind" politicians.
You are right about that.
Or "break wind" politicians.
Some of them could not even win a poker hand while using a marked deck.
If Trump decides to run again he would demolish Biden. Hillary or Michelle Obama might fare better.
I think it will end up being DeSantis
I hope you're right.
Gee, what a surprise.
What is a surprise about my comment?
Still no reply to my question. Guess it was just a drive-by sniping. It seems a shame however that she has me pegged in her black & white world as a Trump supporter. Doesn't seem to realize there are shades of grey in the real world. Hell, I said months back that I didn't want Trump to run again, that I felt he could best serve the Republican party as being a sr member and chief fundraiser...
Why should Trump serve the Republican Party as anything? Why havent they run him out of town on a rail?
This person cannot be rehabilitated, it is absurd. Comments like yours (I felt he could best serve the Republican party as being a sr member and chief fundraiser...) are why people think you are a right winger.
I am a right winger, I'm also a progressive, a conservative, a liberal and a libertarian. I don't pigeonhole myself into just one political party because I don't vote for one political party. But there's a difference between being right-wing and being a Trump supporter... If you don't want to see it or accept it that's on you.
You suggested there is still a place for Trump in American politics. That is a problem.
I don't control any political party any more than you do. Your wants and desires hold about as much power in those political parties as mine do, which is nothing.
You have hated (yes, I know you're gonna come back to state you don't hate him. But five years of your comments doesn't provide me with any basis to believe that) and bitched about Trump for five years now. IMO you have locked yourself in that corner and just refuse to admit there could be anything redeemable. I don't want him to run for office again, I'm actually happy he can't Tweet these days... but he has a knack for fund-raising so let him do what he's good at. Would he be happy with just doing that? Probably not. But again I have no control over what he does and if we're gonna be honest what he does has little impact on our lives. If he wants to get involved in politics, he's gonna do it. If he can't do it in the Republican party do you really think he wouldn't still go out holding rally's and making speeches?
The only problem I see is that I refuse to jump on your train and you don't like that.
Donald Trump tried to steal the 2020 election. You fail to completely denounce him. That is your problem and shortcoming, not mine.
I agree.
Now, do you see how the GOP is losing its way by its collective refusal to distance themselves from Trump? By continuing to hold Trump as their defacto leader, the GOP continues to tarnish its credibility. And worse, it is their support for Trump that enables him to continue. If they would have dropped him after his Big Lie, he would not be news nowadays and the GOP would have a different defacto leader and the hope of restoring some of its credibility.
I say this because it is critical that the GOP be an effective political party. I would prefer to see three or four viable political parties in the USA. Thus I do not find it good for our nation if one of our two parties stupidly hobbles itself for short-term, low-hanging-fruit gains.
That's your opinion, not mine. We will never agree on this. In the scheme of things, no big deal.
How funny. Your self-contradicting ' rebuttal ' tacitly admits that Trump tried to steal the election but failed.
And I realize that you were trying to say that Trump failed to stop the election from being stolen, but your wording was amusing.
Regardless, anyone who still thinks Trump is the legitimate PotUS has no credibility.
Now I am waiting for the MAGA Mob to swear their allegience to Putin too.
As far as Lindsey------well-----he's on the Trump train and heading into the realm of 'the trackless'.
am waiting for the MAGA Mob to swear their allegience to Putin to
You know the Democrats used the filibuster that tool of white supremacy, yesterday to protect Putin’s pipeline from sanctions, right?
Lol.
They have already done that with their allegiance to Trump. The two are a package deal.
McConnell is way past his expiration date.
McConnell is owned. It needs to be determined, by whom.
My guess would be China because of his wife. I am sure she has him totally pussy whipped to do her bidding.
Going by left leaning,,,,,,,logic, if there is such a thing, that’s racist.
That is the problem with turtles. They can live for over 100 years.
I hope Trump's magats do what he said awhile back.....not vote.