RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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See the full story · 26 sourcesSenator Lindsey Graham claimed President Donald Trump’s ‘indecision’ was ‘coming back to hurt us,’ in an interview for an upcoming documentary that was filmed weeks before his death
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Senator Lindsey Graham candidly warned that President Donald Trump was letting the war in Iran “slip away,” just weeks before the senator’s sudden death.
The South Carolina Republican, who died July 11 , had been a vocal champion of the U.S.-Israeli military campaign against Iran, which just hit its five-month-mark with no end in sight.
As part of filmmaker Alex Holder’s upcoming documentary, Lindsey’s Game , Graham divulged some of his honest thoughts about how Trump’s war has progressed during a June sit-down interview.
“Iran, he’s letting this thing slip away. We had them on the ropes, and his indecision is coming back to hurt us,” Graham said, according to a clip aired Monday on CNN. “I’ve got to go talk to him, you know?”
He continued: “Open up the straits, keep the pressure on, unleash Israel to hurt them, and maybe you’ll get a better deal. But the big deal — Saudi, Israel…that’s the big prize, and that can’t happen until Israel and Saudi believe Iran can’t be enough evil force — that they have been put in a box.”
Graham then noted that it was “good news” that the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “owe Trump a lot, they like Trump, but they’re afraid of Trump.”
“And Trump is the first president who doesn’t hold back when it comes to Israel. I mean, I think he’s going a bit too far, but he will dress Bibi down in a way that no other Republican president has ever done. That gives him some credibility in the Arab world,” Graham said of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is known as “Bibi.”
Graham, a foreign policy hawk who often advocated for greater U.S. intervention overseas, noted he was hoping to prove that “isolationism is an outlier” in the Republican Party.
“So this was a referendum on isolationism versus ‘Lindsey Graham MAGA Trump,” he said.
The Independent has contacted the White House for comment.
Several weeks after the interview, Graham died at his home in Washington, D.C., from an aortic rupture. He was 71.
The president eulogized Graham at Washington National Cathedral on Tuesday, calling the senator a “tough cookie” who “never saw a war he didn’t like.” Trump also recalled how, in 2015 while on the campaign trail, he publicly shared Graham’s personal cell phone number — and then proceeded to share it once again.
Graham’s younger sister, Darline Graham, was appointed to serve out the remainder of his term. She is now running for a full six-year term with Trump’s endorsement.
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