Graham denies sabotaging president
COLUMBIA, S.C. >> Sen. Lindsey Graham, one of President Donald Trump’s top congressional allies, is denouncing an implication floated by a Fox News personality that he intended to sabotage the president by setting up a series of revelatory interviews with journalist Bob Woodward.
During an interview Thursday, the South Carolina Republican confirmed to The Associated Press he had helped arrange an initial meeting between Woodward and Trump that led to Woodward’s upcoming book “Rage.” Excerpts reveal the president’s concerns about the coronavirus earlier this year, even as he said he publicly “wanted to always play it down” so as to minimize panic.
“I think it’s pretty absurd to believe that President Trump did something he didn’t want to do because of me or anybody else,” Graham said of the meeting, which would ultimately lead to 18 conversations between Woodward and Trump. “I have more confidence in the president than Tucker Carlson does.”
On Wednesday, Carlson suggested Graham is a false supporter of Trump, rhetorically asking his viewers why Graham — as a Republican — would have set up such a meeting. He then listed myriad times in which Graham spoke out forcefully against Trump, going back to the 2016 campaign, during which they both competed for the GOP presidential nomination.
Graham “passionately opposed virtually every major policy initiative that Donald Trump articulated when he first ran, from ending illegal immigration, to pulling back from pointless wars, to maintaining law and order at home,” Carlson said. “Lindsey Graham was against all of that, more than many Democrats,” Carlson added. “So maybe you already know the answer.”