Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) defended his decision to go all in on former President Donald Trump in 2024, arguing that he is a known quantity with “unfinished business.”
Graham enthusiastically backed Trump during the former president’s first major blockbuster rally of the year in Graham’s home state of South Carolina over the weekend. While commending many of Trump’s potential 2024 rivals, such as former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), Graham contended that they likely could not achieve what Trump did.
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“I’m for Donald Trump because I know what I’m going to get. We need somebody that on day one can get this country back on track. That can secure our border and bring order out of chaos. Somebody that the Russians and the Chinese fear. Somebody that can take the fight to the terrorists,” Graham told Fox News’s Sean Hannity.
Throughout the 2016 election cycle and the early days of the Trump administration, Graham served as a bitter foe of Trump, frequently harping on his gripes with Trump’s temperament. But Graham ultimately warmed up to him over time. At least two prominent Republicans from his home state, Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) and former Gov. Nikki Haley (R), are speculated to run for president in 2024.
“To all these people who are really talented, I don’t think you could do what he did and I want him to have another shot. Unfinished business,” Graham continued.
So far, no major Republican rival has declared to run against Trump. The former president announced his 2024 campaign last November, but many prominent Republicans, including most officials on the Republican National Committee, have refrained from endorsing him amid a likely primary challenge. Trump lost the general election in 2020, but has claimed that the election was “stolen” from him — assertions Graham publicly cast doubt on in the wake of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
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Still, Graham pointed to Trump’s record of achieving a diplomatic breakthrough with the Abraham Accords and locking down higher military spending from NATO allies as some of the many reasons he is supporting him.
“[Trump] is the best solution to the problems we face, not because of the flaws of others, but because of what I know he can do. And I’m telling your listeners right now when you hear ‘I like Trump policies, but I’m ready for somebody new’ — there are no Trump policies without Donald Trump,” Graham added, echoing a line he gave during the Trump rally over the weekend.
