Lindsey Graham wades into MAGA wing of GOP as Ukraine aid stalls
By
Emily Jacobs
March 2, 2024 8:00 am
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) shocked his colleagues and onlookers alike when he voted against the defense supplemental security bill in February.
The decision was a major reversal for Graham, who had spent months working with a bipartisan coalition to get a package aiding Israel, Ukraine, Taiwan, and the U.S. southern border to the Senate floor. He was an adviser in the bipartisan border security talks for the GOP side before that deal fell apart, eventually becoming an opponent of the bill for lacking a border component.
Despite making multiple process arguments against the supplemental package itself, Graham was viewed before last month’s vote as one of the Republican Party’s staunchest supporters of U.S. involvement in Ukraine’s fight against Russia’s military invasion. He visited Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv last May and slammed the Biden administration for not doing enough to help Ukraine win.
But in addition to voting against the package, Graham announced at the time that he would be skipping the annual Munich Security Conference, a mainstay for defense hawks.
“For me to be able to convince people in South Carolina to continue to support conflicts overseas, I have to prove to them I get it when they tell me, ‘What about their own country,” Graham said last month. “So I’m not going to Munich, I’m going to the southern border.”
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https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/senate/2899839/lindsey-graham-maga-wing-republican-party-ukraine-aid/
