Sen. Lindsey Graham, one of former President Donald Trump’s strongest allies in the U.S. Senate, made a prediction this week that establishment, anti-Trump Republicans did not want to hear.
According to Newsmax, Graham reminded his colleagues that without the power of Trump’s political influence — he has tens of millions of loyal fans, after all — that the GOP doesn’t stand a “snowball’s chance in hell” of winning back majority control of the upper chamber in 2022.
The warning was aimed directly at Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who made a very sharp and nasty break from the former president after slamming him in a Senate floor speech just moments after he voted in favor of acquitting him.
In that floor speech, McConnell made crystal clear that he believes Mr. Trump shoulders most of the blame for what happened at the Capitol on Jan. 6, accusing the former president of being “practically and morally responsible” for the tragic events on that day.
Graham admitted that Trump is, well, Trump. But over the past four years, many who were fond of Trump’s character or behavior let it go, as Trump was actually the first president to effect real and prosperous change in America for a very long time.
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“I know Trump can be a handful,” Graham told Sean Hannity on Tuesday evening. “But he is the most dominant figure in the Republican Party. We don’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of taking back the [Senate] majority without Donald Trump. If you don’t get that, you’re just not looking.”
The South Carolina senator went on to point out that while Trump was in office, he and then-Senate Majority Leader McConnell were able to work wonderfully as a team and accomplish a lot, noting that it’s sad that the two have turned into mortal enemies now.
“They’re now at each other’s throat,” Graham said. “I’m more worried about 2022 than I’ve ever been. I don’t want to eat our own.” He went on to label Trump as the most “consequential” Republican in the party and that if McConnell can’t see that, then he’s blind.
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On Tuesday, the former president dropped a bombshell about McConnell in a statement, speaking for the first time about McConnell trashing him on the Senate floor after the impeachment vote. Mr. Trump warned all of the Republican senators thinking about sticking with McConnell, suggesting they don’t stand a chance at winning if they do. Trump went on to call McConnell a “dour, sullen, and unsmiling political hack.”
Graham’s response to both of them? “We need to knock this off.”
And to be fair, he’s right. It’s understandable and pretty predictable that Trump would feel the urge to strike back after McConnell berated him on the Senate floor. So now that the two have gotten the attacks out of their system, it’s sincerely time to look ahead, because the Republican party and tens of millions of Trump-supporting voters can’t run the risk of President Joe Biden having total presidential and congressional control for another two years.
Article Source : thefederalistpapers.org
