J. Scott Applewhite/AP
Sen. Lindsey Graham has called for the Julius Caesar-style assassination of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"Is there a Brutus in Russia? Is there a more successful Colonel Stauffenberg in the Russian military?" Graham tweeted on March 4.
Graham was referring to Brutus, a historical figure who assassinated Julius Caesar, and Claus von Stauffenberg, an army officer who tried and failed to kill Adolf Hitler.
"The only way this ends is for somebody in Russia to take this guy out. You would be doing your country — and the world — a great service," Graham tweeted.
In a separate tweet in the same Twitter chain on March 4, Graham said "the only people who can fix this are the Russian people," referencing his calls for Putin's assassination.
"Easy to say, hard to do. Unless you want to live in darkness for the rest of your life, be isolated from the rest of the world in abject poverty, and live in darkness you need to step up to the plate," Graham said.
Graham is not the first conservative American figure to call for Putin's assassination in the week since Russia launched an unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. Fox News host Sean Hannity floated the idea that Putin should be assassinated during a March 2 episode of his podcast, "The Sean Hannity Show."
Some Russians, too, have advocated for a regime change in their homeland. Businessman and US-based crypto investor Alex Konanykhin put a $1 million bounty on Putin's head this week, calling for military officers to arrest him as a war criminal.
Insider's live blog of the Russian invasion is covering developments as they happen.
