Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican who represents South Carolina, claims his personal relationship with President Joe Biden has suffered in the wake of this summer's chaotic Afghanistan withdrawal amid the fall of Kabul.
Graham made the remarks in an interview with Fox News, telling the outlet that since taking office Biden has "made America less safe."
Joe Biden has been the most incompetent president in my lifetime on foreign policy. Worse than Jimmy Carter. He doesn't understand the nature of the war on terrorism.https://t.co/lQstrV1j04
— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) November 10, 2021
Graham said:
"I've known Joe Biden for a long time, I had a good personal relationship with him. He's a decent man."
"But what he did in Afghanistan I will never forgive him for, he has blood on his hands, and he's made America less safe."
Graham went so far as to call Biden "dishorable" after characterizing him as "the most consistently wrong man on foreign policy in my lifetime":
"When it comes to Joe Biden, he's made America less safe, he's acted in a very dishonorable way. "
"I can't wait until the next election to stop this socialist train on the domestic side, and have a chance to get a commander in chief that knows how to keep this country safe."
You can watch the segment here:
Graham and Biden have known each other for decades, particularly since they served in the Senate together before Biden left the chamber to take up the mantle as the Vice President under former President Barack Obama.
But the relationship between the two men has publicly deteriorated in the last few years, underscored by the President recently referring to Graham as "a personal disappointment" when asked about their relationship.
In December 2020, Biden told talk show host Stephen Colbert that Graham has "been a personal disappointment because I was a personal friend of his," a sign of how much the tides have changed between the two under the Trump administration.
In fact, in 2015 Graham described Biden "as good a man as God ever created" and in the same breath denounced then-presidential candidate Donald Trump as a "race-baiting, xenophobic religious bigot."
That's a striking about-face from remarks Graham made over the summer, when he called for Biden to be impeached over the withdrawal from Afghanistan, charging the President "ignored sound advice" and has "been this way for 40 years."
Many have criticized Graham for his remarks and have accused him of hypocrisy.
No sir you are wrong! You kiss the ass of the worst president of our lifetime! That anti American orange boob who tried, with your help, to over turn democracy! https://t.co/7MpzCDyXyq
— Diane (@Diane50866873) November 11, 2021
You compromised coward stooge dickdrip. You regularly licked the ass of a man who extorted an ally to interfere in an election, ignored a pandemic, signed the Afghan withdrawal plan you now pretend to hate & incited a violent insurrection against the US gov. Hell isn't hot enough https://t.co/0XurHMGCw6
— Randi Mayem Singer (@rmayemsinger) November 11, 2021
Lindsey Graham says his friendship with President Biden is over. This is a huge win for President Biden.
— Erie Siobhan 🇺🇸 (@ErieNotEerie) November 11, 2021
yo Graham, you don't understand the nature of anything just like your asshole loser brother, Cruz. Get out of politics and save face if you have face to save. https://t.co/QhIEqMZ88S
— Corey Cole (@CoreyCo69810688) November 11, 2021
Lindsey Graham forgave Donald Trump for inciting an insurrection where he could have been killed but he won't forgive Biden for the Afghanistan withdrawal. Yes he's a shameless piece of shit who's words are meaningless.
— Tim Hannan (@TimHannan) November 11, 2021
Hey Lindsey, remember that time we had a POTUS who extorted our ally to get them to interfere with our election? And bowed down to our enemy who seemingly owned him? And created that Afghan plan you pretend to hate now? Of course you do, you lying, wet sack of cowardice. https://t.co/HGTIfjbHVO
— Bleeding Heart Liberal Marine (@BleedingMarine) November 11, 2021
I'm sure Biden doesn't give a rat's ass if Lindsey Graham forgives him over Afghanistan.
— 💜Peggy B💜 (@PegLulu2) November 11, 2021
Lindsey Graham announces that he's no longer friends with Biden after Biden spent the last 10 months ignoring his calls.
— Ted (@trom771) November 11, 2021
Per Political Insider, Lindsey Graham reports he will not ever be able to forgive President Biden for pulling American troops from Afghanistan.
Now see, this is fascinating because he never mentioned being upset about the Kurdish genocide.
— CajunBlueAZ™ 🌵 (@CajunBlueAZ1) November 11, 2021
What Graham's remarks have consistently ignored is that former President Donald Trump was in charge of the armed forces at the time that plans to withdraw from Afghanistan were decided.
Trump's administration had proposed leaving Afghanistan by January 15, 2021.
Graham was decidedly critical of Trump's decision to drawdown United States troops, once warning of "disastrous" consequences should the U.S. reduce its presence to less than 8,600 troops.
Trump was also largely supportive of an Afghanistan withdrawal.
In April, he put himself at odds with other Republicans when he suggested that American troops should leave Afghanistan ahead of Biden's proposed deadline of September 11, though the withdrawal was completed on August 30, ahead of schedule.
There are still over 400 Americans in Afghanistan, according to an estimate from the Department of Defense (DOD).
Biden, for his part, has defended his administration's response.
In a speech in August, the President said the U.S. mission in Afghanistan was never intended "to have been nation building."
He said when it began it had been about "preventing a terrorist attack on the American homeland" and was "never supposed to be creating a unified centralized democracy."
