Chris Hayes took his viewers on a little trip down memory lane and Lindsey Graham going from one of Trump's biggest critics to Trump sycophant, while discussing the latest reporting by by journalists Michael Isikoff and Daniel Klaidman, who's new book claims Graham “threw Trump under the bus” during his grand jury testimony in Georgia.
As Hayes discussed, back in 2015 when Graham was running against Trump for the Republican nomination, he called Trump "crazy," "unfit for office," and a "xenophobic, religious bigot." He also said during an interview "You know how you make America great again? Kill Donald Trump."
And after he lost the primary and Trump became president, as Hayes noted, "Graham did a complete 180" and "wanted so badly to be close to the man in power, he was willing to humiliate himself to get there." As Hayes discussed, "the slobbering continued until January 6th, when Sen. Graham claimed he finally had enough," but as he noted, that didn't last long, and Graham was right back on Fox, tearing up and begging viewers to send Trump money.
"Bro, bro, come on," Hayes continued. "Now, nine years into this routine Lindsey Graham has flip-flopped once again."
Here's more on that from The Guardian:
The South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham “threw Donald Trump under the bus” in testimony to a grand jury investigating election subversion in Georgia, a new book reportedly says, revealing that the former president would have believed “martians came and stole the election” he lost to Joe Biden in 2020.
“After fighting a four-month legal battle all the way to the US supreme court to block his grand jury subpoena – and losing … Graham turned on a dime ‘and threw Trump under the bus’,” Michael Isikoff and Daniel Klaidman write in Find Me the Votes: A Hard-Charging Georgia Prosecutor, a Rogue President, and the Plot to Steal an American Election, Politico reported.
“According to secret grand jury testimony in Fulton county confirmed by the authors, Graham testified that if you told Trump ‘that martians came and stole the election, he’d probably believe you’. He also suggested to the grand jurors that Trump cheated at golf.” [...]
Isikoff and Klaidman also reportedly describe a “strange encounter” between Graham and Fani Willis, the Fulton county district attorney who has pursued the election subversion case, producing 13 criminal charges against Trump and charging a host of his allies. [...]
“After Graham was finished testifying,” Isikoff and Klaidman write, “he bumped into Fani Willis in a hallway and thanked her for the opportunity to tell his story.
“‘That was so cathartic,’ he told Willis. ‘I feel so much better.’ Then, to the astonishment of one source who witnessed the scene, South Carolina’s senior senator hugged the Fulton county DA who was aggressively pursuing Trump.
“Willis’s reaction: ‘She was like, “Whatever, dude,”’ according to one witness of the strange encounter.”
Hayes wrapped things up by sharing with his audience that Isikoff would join him next Tuesday to discuss his book. He told Sen. Graham to set his DVR.
