Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) has criticized Donald Trump repeatedly in recent years, and has on multiple occasions been on the receiving end of angry Trump antics. I imagine we all remember the time he read Graham’s cell-phone number aloud to a full audience.
But the Republican senator has apparently had a change of heart, and is now starting to play the role of a Trump cheerleader.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) on Thursday said he is fed up with the media’s portrayal of President Donald Trump. “What concerns me about the American press is this endless, endless attempt to label the guy as some kind of kook not fit to be president,” Graham told CNN.
Yeah, American press, what’s wrong with you? You’d have to be a pretty obnoxious observer to call Trump a “kook” who’s “not fit” for office.
What’s that, Lindsey Graham from last year? Do you have something you’d like to add?
“I think he’s a kook,” he said in February 2016. “I think he’s crazy. I think he’s unfit for office.”
I’m reminded of an anti-drug-abuse commercial from my youth. The dad confronts his son, demanding to know where he learned to do drugs. “From you, all right?” the son says. “I learned it by watching you.”
If Graham is concerned about efforts to label Trump a “kook” who’s “not fit” for office? From you, senator. We learned it by watching you.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."