Don Lemon eviscerated Lindsey Graham after he publicly criticised Donald Trump, but was seen with him just days later. (Dimitrios Kambouris/MANDEL NGAN/Getty)
Don Lemon has absolutely eviscerated anti-LGBT+ Republican Lindsey Graham for pandering to Donald Trump – and it is truly a read for the ages.
Graham publicly condemned Trump after the president encouraged a violent mob of white supremacists to storm the Capitol, saying: “All I can say is, count me out. Enough is enough.”
But it appears that the South Carolina senator’s words were just for show, as just a few days later, he was seen coming out of the White House with Trump before travelling with him to a rally in Texas.
And Lemon was having none of it. He tore into Graham over his hypocrisy on Wednesday (13 January), referring to him as “lapdog Lindsey”.
“He sure had some tough talk for Trump before he became president,” Lemon said, before broadcasting clips of Graham tearing into Trump prior to his 2016 election, calling him a “race baiting xenophobic religious bigot”.
“Tell us how you really feel”
CNN’s @DonLemon speaks on the evolution of Sen. Lindsey Graham, who was critical of Donald Trump before he was elected president, but has since been an ally to Trump. https://t.co/faXlGh3mcJ pic.twitter.com/FYwlrsp3jM
— CNN Tonight (@CNNTonight) January 13, 2021
“He doesn’t represent my party,” Graham said in the old clip. “I think he’s a cook, I think he’s crazy, I think he’s unfit for office,” he said in another.
But, of course, once Trump was elected, Graham quickly came around, becoming an ally of the president.
Don Lemon hit out at Lindsey Graham for his support of Donald Trump.
Referencing his “count me out” speech, Lemon said: “Enough is enough, huh?” before he showed images of Graham leaving the White House with Trump just days later.
Laughing incredulously, Lemon added: “And that’s where we are tonight. A second impeachment looming. An unprecedented threat to our national security from a president who has put the entire country in danger.
Graham was one of 75 senators who were in the Capitol in Washington DC when a violent mob turned up and stormed the building.
The Republican senator came under fire on Monday when Democratic senator Sherrod Brown accused Graham of screaming at a police officer for “not doing enough” to protect him.
“I heard when the 75 senators were confined in a room with about 75 staff people, Lindsey Graham with his mask off started screaming at one of the officers – I think it was one of the captains – saying, ‘How come you didn’t protect us? It’s doing your job,’”
Brown said he found Graham’s remarks ironic, given that he had personally “aided and abetted” Trump and his followers for the past four years.
“This is the same Lindsey Graham that for five years – or for four years, he didn’t do it in the beginning – defended and argued for and encouraged and aided and abetted this president and all of his followers,” the Democratic senator said.