Lindsey Graham's Dem Challenger Calls Graham Out for 'Good Ole Days of Segregation' Crack at SCOTUS Hearing

The Senate Judiciary Committee hearings for Judge Amy Coney Barrett's nomination to the Supreme Court have stretched across three days so far, and they haven't been without some memorable moments.

One such moment came when committee chairman, Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), mentioned the "good old days of segregation."

Graham was asking Barrett about the landmark Supreme Court ruling Brown v. Board of Education, which deemed school segregation unconstitutional.

Watch below.

Graham asked Barrett:

"You're not aware of any effort to go back to the good old days of segregation by a legislative body, is that correct?"

While Graham appeared to be joking that the days of segregation could ever be "good," people were still alarmed at the flippancy with which he approached the subject.

One of the first to criticize him was Democratic South Carolina Senate nominee Jaime Harrison, whose campaign has collected record-shattering numbers of donations, giving Graham his most competitive reelection race in years.

Harrison admonished Graham for the unsettling levity.

Graham accused Harrison of manufacturing a controversy out of a comment he made innocuously, saying:

"It was with deep sarcasm that I suggested that some legislative body would want to yearn for the good old days of segregation. The point that I'm trying to make — there is nobody in America in the legislative arena wanting to take us back to that dark period in American history. For my opponent to suggest that says far more about him than me."

People largely took Harrison's side.

The sarcasm excuse wasn't cutting it.

Graham's comments come on the heels of another controversial remark he made: that Black South Carolinians could go anywhere they want in the state—they just "need to be conservative."