Furious Graham Calls Kavanaugh Hearing ‘the Most Unethical Sham’

Sen. Lindsey Graham, the blunt-speaking South Carolina Republican, vented to reporters Thursday outside the hearing room where the Senate Judiciary Committee was hearing explosive testimony about sexual assault allegations against Judge Brett Kavanaugh, President Donald Trump’s embattled Supreme Court nominee.

Then he went back inside and really let loose.

“What you want to do is destroy this guy’s life, hold this seat open and hope you win in 2020,” Graham, red-faced and dropping all pretenses of legislative comity, yelled at his Democratic colleagues. “This is the most unethical sham since I’ve been in politics.”

With those words, Graham all but cemented a slow-motion public political transformation over the past two years — from an anti-Trump, maverick Republican senator who often sought legislative compromise to Trump’s closest ally and most ardent defender.

As one of Trump’s rivals for the presidency in 2016, Graham called him “the world’s biggest jackass,” a “race-baiting xenophobic religious bigot” and a “kook” unfit to be president. For his part, Trump responded by calling Graham “an idiot” and “not as bright, honestly, as Rick Perry.”

But after Trump was inaugurated, Graham gradually changed his tune. He was spotted playing golf with Trump and chatting on the phone with the president. He has occasionally taken issue with Trump’s tweets, but has largely supported his agenda.

For longtime observers of politics in Washington, it has been a remarkable change, underscored recently by the death of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who was Graham’s best friend in Washington and one of the president’s fiercest critics.

There were those in both parties who might have once thought that Graham would assume McCain’s mantle as the straight-talking Republican in the Senate, challenging his own party and frequently working with Democratic colleagues to reach bipartisan compromises.

But Graham’s increasingly cozy relationship with Trump suggests that such expectations are misplaced.

During the first two years of the administration, Graham has supported the president’s plans to build up the military, end the Iran nuclear deal, cut taxes, eliminate regulations and reorient the nation’s foreign policy.

In recent weeks, Sam Nunberg, a former Trump aide, speculated that Graham might be Trump’s choice to become attorney general if the president fires Jeff Sessions from the post.

And on Thursday, Graham became the fiercest defender of the president’s choice to replace Justice Anthony Kennedy on the Supreme Court in the face of explosive allegations of sexual misconduct.

For almost two hours, Graham — and the rest of the Republicans on the Judiciary Committee — sat silently during the testimony of Christine Blasey Ford, the research psychologist who has accused Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her in high school.

But when it came time for Kavanaugh to testify, Graham, who is a former Air Force lawyer, could no longer sit still.

With Kavanaugh sitting before him, Graham assailed the Democrats on the panel. He accused them of merely wanting to accumulate power. And he dared his Republican colleagues to vote against Kavanaugh’s nomination.

“If you vote no, you’re legitimizing the most despicable thing I have seen in my time in politics,” Graham said, his voice rising in a way that is rarely seen in Senate hearings. Turning again to the Democrats to his left, he fumed: “You want this seat. I hope you never get it.”

That position is a reversal of sorts for Graham; throughout 2016, he supported Republican political tactics to block former President Barack Obama from filling a similar vacancy on the Supreme Court.

Graham ended his brief tirade with an announcement to Trump’s nominee: “I intend to vote for you. And I hope everybody who is fair-minded will.”

Graham is up for re-election in 2020, and there is certainly no political harm for him in binding himself to the president in one of the most Trump-friendly states in the country.

It is not yet known whether the dramatic and emotional performance will help persuade his Republican colleagues to vote for Kavanaugh’s nomination in the face of the allegations by Blasey and two other women.

But one thing is clear: The unleashed anger is certain to be noticed by the president, who had pledged the evening before that he would watch the testimony of Kavanaugh and his accuser.

And for Trump, who has bragged about never saying he is sorry, one particular phrase may stand out.

Looking at Kavanaugh — with the cameras rolling — Graham said, “You’ve got nothing to apologize for.”