Donald Trump mocked South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham by calling him a “progressive” during a speech during a fundraiser at his private club in Florida.
“There are some senators. And we have our progressive senator from South Carolina, Lindsey Graham,” Mr. Trump said Friday during the Lincoln Day fundraiser, organized by the Palm Beach County Republican Party in Mr. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Resort.
“He is a progressive, but he is our progressive,” the former president added, according to insiders.
Mr Trump has threatened Mr Graham after the news that he had threatened the 25th.
The South Carolina senator’s frustration was reported in the book This will not go through by Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns of The New York Times.
In a statement published by Axios, the authors write that an angry Mr Graham called White House lawyer Pat Cipollone and threatened to repeal the 25th Amendment.
“We ask you for the 25th.
Mr Graham told the author that day that “people say ‘I do not want to be involved’ … There’s a rallying effect for a while, the country says ‘we are better than that’.”.
He also suggested that then-elected President Joe Biden was a good choice for the moment. “I mean, how angry can you be at Joe Biden?” he said.
Mr Graham criticized Mr Trump in January of this year for calling the former president’s idea of pairing members of the mob “inappropriate”.
In response, Mr. Trump called Mr. Graham a RINO – Republican Only by Name – a term that is often dismissed by Republicans as disloyal to other conservatives. In the Trump era, there was a willingness on the part of Republicans to criticize Mr. Trump, as did Representatives Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger.
While Mr. Graham has publicly denounced Mr. Trump, he is still considered a close ally. In January, he said he helped persuade Mr. Trump to hold a press conference on the anniversary of the uprising.
The South Carolina senator was also seen as supporting Mr. Trump, saying in January that he would not support Mitch McConnell as leader of the Republicans in the Senate unless Mr. McConnell had a “working relationship” with Mr. Trump.
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