South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham worked himself into an angry-faced tirade on Fox News Sunday, even appearing to remove his microphone as he and host Chris Wallace ended the interview.
The Senate Judiciary Committee chairman became agitated as Wallace asked him about the Republican Party’s course of action should 85-year-old “liberal icon” Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg vacate her seat amid ongoing cancer treatment. Wallace particularly asked Graham whether he thinks a “political circus” could erupt should President Donald Trump, much-loathed by the left, nominate a staunchly conservative judge to fill the vacancy, similar to the fiasco seen during the Kavanaugh hearings.
While the Southern senator’s interview began with a seemingly conciliatory or bipartisan tone, he quickly took aim at longtime grudges against Democratic leaders and vowed to put more conservatives on the Supreme Court.
Graham said he would absolutely convince Trump to nominate a “qualified conservative” before Graham began railing against Democratic leaders for trying to “stack the court” in years past.
“Well number one, I wish her well and hope she recovers and continues to serve for many years but here’s what will happen if there’s a vacancy, no matter if from the liberal wing of the court,” Graham began with a bipartisan tone, before immediately flipping back. “There will be a lot of pushback from the left. But my Democrat colleagues felt, when they were in charge, we should confirm judges by a majority vote. They changed the rules to accommodate President Obama, they tried to stack the court, they never thought [Hillary Clinton] would lose.”
Graham repeatedly referenced former Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and current Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s desires for the court from the Obama era “coming back to haunt them.”
“I will urge the president to nominate a qualified conservative,” Graham said with a defiant, reddening face, before launching into a partisan tirade. “Hopefully that person will get through and I expect it to be along party lines. And this is what happens when you change the rules. This has come back to bite them, I predicted it would, and we’ll see.”
In order to avoid a “political circus” during the next SCOTUS nomination hearings, the veteran Fox News political host asked if replacing a “liberal icon” with a staunch conservative would “create a recipe for — doesn’t that make the Kavanaugh hearings look like a tea party?”
“I’m going to be hell-bent to replace [a vacated seat] with a conservative, whoever steps down for whatever reason,” Graham angrily replied.
The interview concluded with a bizarre exchange, which could have potentially been caused by an audio issue, in which Graham demanded to tell viewers one additional piece of information before taking his microphone off and not responding to Wallace’s final comment.
South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham worked himself into an angry-faced tirade on Fox News Sunday, even appearing to remove his microphone as he and host Chris Wallace ended the interview. Screenshot: Fox News Sunday
“We don’t need one Democrat to replace a liberal justice and the reason that’s the case is because what [former Senate Majority Leader] Harry Reid did, what he set in motion,” a seething Graham angrily told the camera. Wallace then attempted to thank the South Carolina Republican, but a visibly frustrated Graham removed his microphone and did not respond despite being a frequent guest on the program.
“I guess you think it was okay to speak with us,” Wallace said, laughing to himself.
Absent from any of Wallace’s questions or Graham’s reponses was a mention of Graham and Mitch McConnell’s role in completely shutting out President Barack Obama’s SCOTUS nominee Merrick Garland during his final year in office. Graham did mention his vote in favor of Sonia Sotomayor in 2009. His Senate hearing questions focused on her having the appropriate “temperament” to sit on the Supreme Court.
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