Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) was booed onstage at The Atlantic Festival in Washington on Wednesday after saying Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh “was treated like crap.”
While in conversation with The Atlantic editor in chief Jeffrey Goldberg, Graham said he didn’t “particularly like” President Donald Trump’s mockery of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford’s Senate testimony at his rally in Southaven, Mississippi, Tuesday night. Last week, Ford recounted to the Senate Judiciary Committee her allegation that Kavanaugh had forced himself on her and groped her during high school.
“I would tell him, ‘Knock it off, you’re not helping,’” Graham said, before making a bizarre reference to Juanita Broaddrick and Kathleen Willey, the women who accused former President Bill Clinton of sexual abuse.
When Goldberg asked “what the point” of Graham’s remarks were, Graham said, “Here’s the point, I have seen what happened to these women in 1998 when they came forward. I don’t like what the president said last night. I’m the first person to say, ‘I want to hear it from Dr. Ford.’ I thought she was handled respectfully.”
Graham went on to say that he thought Kavanaugh “was treated like crap,” a remark the crowd responded to with resounding boos.
“Yeah, well boo yourself,” Graham said to the crowd.
Graham also said to the audience that “if an opening comes in the last year of President Trump’s term and the primary process has started, we’ll wait until the next election,” in reference to nominating another judge to the Supreme Court.
Goldberg interrupted Graham before he seemingly was about to say that he has a good chance of being the next chairman of the Judiciary Committee.
Graham has been very loud about his feelings toward Kavanaugh and the committee’s handling of his nomination.
Earlier this week, he issued a statement imploring Trump to nominate Kavanaugh again if his nomination fails in a Senate vote.
“I believe Judge Kavanaugh will be confirmed to the Supreme Court very soon,” Graham said. “However, if his nomination were to fall short, I would encourage President Trump to re-nominate Judge Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. It would ― in effect ― be appealing the Senate’s verdict directly to the American people.”
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