By Staff Writer
If you've ever
wondered how the Uniparty survives election after election, look no
further than Lindsey Graham. He's the living embodiment of the
Washington shell game, talk like a conservative when the cameras are
on, vote like a Democrat when the gavel drops, and position yourself
so that no matter who's in the White House, your phone rings.
The numbers are
damning. In 2023, Graham voted with Joe Biden over 50% of the time,
according to FiveThirtyEight's congressional score tracker placing
him alongside Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski as the Senate
Republicans most likely to cross the aisle. His defense? He believes
presidents deserve broad deference on nominees. Translation: when a
Democrat occupies the Oval Office, Lindsey Graham becomes a rubber
stamp with a South Carolina accent.
Meanwhile, the worst
congressman ever the kind Graham's allies love to smear clocked in at
1.8%. That's not a gap. That's a chasm between someone who represents
his voters and someone who represents the Acela corridor cocktail
circuit.
The Ukraine
Sabotage: June 2025
In late May and
early June of this year, while President Trump was actively working
to bring the Ukraine-Russia war to a negotiated end, Lindsey Graham
boarded a plane to Kyiv with Democrat Richard Blumenthal a man whose
credibility on foreign policy is roughly equivalent to a gas station
sushi platter.
What followed was a
masterclass in deep state sabotage dressed up as bipartisanship:
May 30, 2025: Graham
and Blumenthal meet with Zelensky in Kyiv, touring missile strike
sites and posing for photos while peace talks with Russia were
scheduled to resume in Istanbul on June 2.
June 2, 2025: The
Istanbul peace talks collapse. Zelensky's own office admitted Russia
hadn't even submitted a negotiating agenda. But Graham wasn't in
Istanbul urging compromise he was in Paris, standing next to Emmanuel
Macron, telling the Associated Press that Putin was "preparing
for more war" and pushing his sanctions sledgehammer bill.
The Sledgehammer:
Graham's sanctions legislation co-sponsored with Blumenthal and
backed by 82 to 85 senators threatened 500% tariffs on any country
buying Russian oil, explicitly targeting China, India, and Brazil.
This wasn't a negotiation tool. This was a declaration of economic
war designed to make any peace deal impossible.
Graham claimed he'd
talked to President Trump before his trip and that Trump expected
concrete action. But the timeline tells a different story. Trump had
spent months trying to bring Putin to the table. Graham flew into the
middle of active negotiations, held a press conference with one of
the Senate's most notorious hawks and prevaricators, and announced
the diplomatic equivalent of burning the table down. The Istanbul
talks failed within 48 hours.
The American people
were promised an end to the Ukraine war. Lindsey Graham made sure
that promise couldn't be kept then went on CBS's Face the Nation in
July to boast about it.
If Ukraine is
Graham's long con, Iran is his true religion. Throughout 2025, Graham
positioned himself as the loudest voice demanding military
confrontation with Tehran.
May 8, 2025: Graham
and Tom Cotton held a press conference declaring that anything short
of complete dismantlement of Iran's nuclear program was unacceptable.
His exact words. If negotiations and diplomacy fail, we need to go to
Plan B, and Plan B would be a military strike.
June 2025: When
Israel launched strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities and the region
teetered on full scale war, Graham went on Fox News with Sean Hannity
and called for Trump to go all in providing American bombs, American
planes, and joint operations. He openly mused: Wouldn't the world be
better off if the Ayatollahs went away?
June 24, 2025: On
the Senate floor, Graham delivered a speech praising Operation
Midnight Hammer the U.S. strikes on Iran as brilliant and bold,
declaring it would live in history.
The US launched its
war against Iran in March 2026. Graham spent the preceding year
laying the rhetorical groundwork, ensuring that when the moment came,
the peace president would have no choice but to escalate. The man who
claims to support Trump spent 2025 methodically boxing him into a
corner where war became the only option.
This isn't new
behavior. Lindsey Graham has been knifing the America First agenda
since before it had a name.
Years of Betrayal.
2015-2016
Called Trump a
bigot, criticized the Muslim ban, and said the GOP would be destroyed
if Trump were nominated.
January 6, 2021
Walked onto the
Senate floor and screamed I'M OUT! publicly abandoning Trump and the
election integrity effort.
2023
Voted with Joe Biden
over 50% of the time, rubber-stamping Biden's judicial and executive
nominees.
2025
Sabotaged Trump's
Ukraine peace negotiations by flying to Kyiv with Blumenthal days
before Istanbul talks.
2025
Pushed for all in
military support for Israel's strikes on Iran, demanding regime
change.
2025
Boasted at the
Jerusalem Religious Council about killing all the right people met
with thunderous applause.
Graham's playbook is
transparent, publicly claim to support Trump while working behind the
scenes to ensure the foreign policy blob gets everything it wants.
He's the human embodiment of the revolving door between the defense
industry, the intelligence community, and Capitol Hill.
South Carolina is
one of the most conservative states in the union. Its voters have
sent the same man back to the Senate since 2003 and what do they have
to show for it?
A senator who votes
with Democrats more than half the time
A senator who has
never met a war he didn't want to escalate
A senator who treats
Fox News green rooms as his primary workplace
A senator whose
foreign policy is indistinguishable from the late John McCain's just
with more hair product and a busier brunch schedule
Graham's 2023
Biden-agreement score of over 50% means South Carolina effectively
had a third of a Democratic senator. The only reason he's survived
this long is that he's mastered the art of saying just enough
conservative-sounding things on cable news to keep primary
challengers at bay while governing like a member of the permanent
Washington ruling class.
Lindsey Graham isn't
a Republican. He's not a Democrat. He's something worse: a Uniparty
creature who serves one constituency and one constituency only the
institutional blob that profits from endless war, open borders, and
the administrative state.
His Ukraine stunt in
June 2025 was the clearest example yet. Trump was on the verge of
delivering what he'd promised: an end to the bloodshed. Graham
couldn't allow that. So he flew to a war zone with one of the most
dishonest men in the Senate, held press conferences designed to
sabotage negotiations, and then came home to brag about his
"bipartisan" sanctions bill on national television.
The peace talks
failed. The funding continued. The stalemate grinds on. And Lindsey
Graham is still there, still on TV, still pretending he's on Trump's
side while ensuring the war machine never runs out of fuel.
No matter who you
vote for, you get a gay war or a holy war. But Lindsey Graham ensures
you get both.
That's not just a
clever line it's the man's entire career in one sentence. He's the
senator who will weep on television about the troops while voting to
send more of them into harm's way. He'll call Trump a bigot one year
and claim to be his closest ally the next. He'll promise to drain the
swamp while swimming in it.
South Carolina can
do better. The nation needs better. Lindsey Graham is John McCain's
foreign policy with none of the war hero credentials, wrapped in a
Fox News contributor contract and accessorized with a permanent
reservation at the worst table in Washington.
The question isn't
whether Graham has betrayed Trump and his voters that's been settled
for a decade. The question is why anyone still takes his calls.
A vote for Lindsey
Graham is a vote to keep South Carolina in the grip of a man who
hasn't represented your values in decades it's a vote for more war,
more betrayal, and more of the same Uniparty rot that's been
hollowing out this country while he collects his cable news checks
and brunches his way through the DC circuit. You pull the lever for
Lindsey, you're not getting a senator you're getting a double agent
in a flag pin who'll smile in your face and stab Trump in the back
before the ink on your ballot dries. South Carolina deserves a
fighter. The nation deserves a senator who doesn't need a Democrat
chaperone to undermine American foreign policy. Lindsey Graham has
made his choice, again and again. It's time South Carolina makes
theirs.
Sources:
Lindsey Graham
Ukraine trip June 2025 peace talks sabotage
President
Meets with U.S. Senators Lindsey Graham and Richard Blumenthal —
Official website of the President of Ukraine archive.phLindsey
Graham, Richard Blumenthal meet with Volodymyr Zelensky in Ukraine
thehill.comUS
senators meet with Zelensky in Kyiv as doubt cast over upcoming
Ukraine-Russia peace talks - AOL aol.com
Searched for Lindsey
Graham Blumenthal Ukraine TV threats Trump peace deal
Transcript:
Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Lindsey Graham on "Face the Nation
with Margaret Brennan," July 13, 2025 - CBS News cbsnews.com
Sen.
Lindsey Graham says "a turning point regarding Russia's invasion
of Ukraine is coming" youtube.com
Putin
'is preparing for more war,' GOP senator warns after meeting with
Zelenskyy and Macron | PBS News pbs.org
Searched for Lindsey
Graham Iran war hawks 2025
Iran
Hawks Graham, Cotton Draw Red Line for Deal: No Nuke Program for
Tehran - The Daily Signal dailysignal.com
Lindsey
Graham Wants Trump to Go ‘All In’ on Iran as Security Council
Meets - Newsweek newsweek.com
ICYMI:
Graham Floor Speech on the Israel-Iran Conflict lgraham.senate.gov
Searched for Lindsey
Graham voting record with Biden 2023 percentage
How
often every member of Congress voted with Biden in 2023 - ABC News
web.archive.org
How
often every member of Congress voted with Biden in 2023 abcnews.com
data/congress-biden-score
at master · fivethirtyeight/data · GitHub github.com