Lindsey Graham now says he was ‘wrong’ for praising Biden after Capitol riot

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Senator Lindsey Graham walked back his comments during the 6 January insurrection that President Joe Biden would be the best person to unify the country.

Fox News host Jesse Watters asked the South Carolina Republican about comments he made to New York Times reporters Alexander Burns and Jonathan Martin for their book This Will Not Pass. In the audio recording, Mr Graham is recorded as saying that the riot by supporters of former president Donald Trump would lead to the country unifying.

“This is a group within a group,” Mr Graham said at the time. “What this does, it’ll be a rallying effect for a while, where the country says, ‘We’re better than this.’”

When asked whether Mr Biden would be the right person to unify the country, Mr Graham said yes.

“Totally, he’ll be maybe the best person to have, right,” Mr Graham was recorded as saying. “I mean, how mad can you get at Joe Biden.”

Mr Watters asked Mr Graham about, to which he admitted he made a mistake.

“I was wrong,” he said. “I’ve known Joe for 30 years. He’s a nice guy, but he’s been a disaster as president.”

Mr Graham continued by saying that Mr Biden made the United States less safe and hurt the economy. He added that many of the United States’ enemies didn’t do so during Mr Trump’s presidency.

“Nobody fears Joe Biden abroad, and at home his policies are failing,” he said.

Mr Graham and Mr Biden were friends for years, having served in the Senate together before Mr Biden ascended to the vice presidency. But their relationship became frayed after Mr Graham attacked Mr Biden’s son Hunter during Mr Trump’s first impeachment.

Mr Graham has also said their relationship would be unable to heal after the Biden administration’s exit from Afghanistan. Mr Graham harshly criticised Mr Biden’s Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson and she was the first Supreme Court nominee Mr Graham ever voted against.