Although Trump and his allies are slowly changing their narrative over the election fraud claims, they still use every single occasion to point out that the election process was a total fraud. Surely but slowly, more and more GOP members are not backing Trump’s claims and the latest to join on the list is Lindsey Graham.
According to the book Peril by Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, Senators Mike Lee (R., Utah) and Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) personally checked all the information in regards to the election process fraud and concluded they were meritless.
It was January 4 when Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani gave Graham a collection of memos entitled “Voting Irregularities, Impossibilities, and Illegalities in the 2020 General Election” after Graham asked Trump proof for his claims.
The memos alleged various irregularities in voting in swing states, such as hundreds of dead people voting in Georgia and 12,000 “overvotes” in Arizona, when voters select more than the maximum number of choices on a ballot.
At the time, Graham called his top lawyer on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Lee Holmes, to check the evidence together. According to Holmes, it was clear that the claims of dead people voting involved people who in fact died after the election. In addition, the 12,000 overvotes in Arizona turned out to be just 180 cast in the presidential election.
Graham viewed the arguments backing up the election fraud narrative as suitable for “third grade,” the authors wrote. What’s even more, Graham reportedly told Donald Trump in several phone calls during the summer that he just went too far with the fraud claims and he should stop if he considers another run in 2024.
Graham is known to be a Trump supporter, although we remember very well that this has not always been the case. During the presidential campaign in 2016, Graham opposed Trump, but later supported him in regards to various issues.
Graham remained a big Trump supporter even after he left the White House office. In multiple occasions, Graham said that GOP needs Trump’s help in retaking the House and Senate in the 2022 midterms as a result of his great popularity and strong supporters base.
“I told the president, when you’re looking to back somebody, whether you like them or not – if you’re looking for revenge, which tastes always good – remember that your legacy is at stake here, your viability as a future political figure is at stake here,” Graham said at the time. “Because if we lose another cycle, I think there will be an awareness that we have to make a fundamental change.”
Both Lee and Graham voted to certify the results of the election on January 6, when congressmen evacuated the Capitol following a riot of Trump supporters. Before the certification, Lee sent colleagues a letter from Representative Chip Roy (R., Texas) objecting to overturning President Biden’s win.
Despite the fact that Graham no longer supports Trump in the election fraud claims, he remains his supporter and in multiple occasions in the past few months he encouraged Trump in running for president again in 2024.
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