According to Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Kathleen Parker, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) has pulled off the extraordinary feat of getting both fans and critics of Donald Trump to agree on one thing: they hold the South Carolina senator in complete contempt.
In her column for the Washington Post, Parker took up the question of "what happened to Lindsey Graham?" -- who she called "Trump's Rasputin" -- that has seen him go from a moderate House Republican to a stalwart Trump cheerleader now that he is in the Senate.
Using Graham's appearance before a Trump speech in Pickens, South Carolina over the July 4th weekend – at which the hometown senator was viciously booed and called "traitor" by the crowd – as a springboard, Parker wrote, "Lindsey, as everybody calls him back home, also has a history of troublemaking that might have boomeranged. During the past few years, he has shape-shifted into at least four distinct personas, from Trump-bashing presidential candidate to Trump whisperer, to done with Trump, to head cheerleader for Trump 2024. It’s been downright dizzying."
According to Parker, insiders claim that Graham wielded some influence with Trump, notably counseling him in the past on foreign affairs, but that has gone by the wayside and now the senator is standing on the sidelines with his finger in the air wondering which way the wind is blowing.
"In 2020, Trump supporters in South Carolina liked Graham well enough to help reelect him, if barely. But any contrarian word from him about their leader curdles their blood," she wrote after claiming, "Inadvertently, Graham has managed to unite pro- and anti-Trump factions by making himself their common enemy."
"If Pickens was any indication of Trump’s loyalty to him, however, Graham should watch out," she advised before pointing out Trump told the crowd, "We’re going to love Lindsey Graham I know, I know, he’s half and half, but when I need him, he’s there. He’s good, and we know the good ones, don’t we?” which, w she wrote, was met with "Crickets."
You can read her whole column here.
