Lindsey Graham seemed to have his back against the wall after being shown a montage of Donald Trump labeling Kamala Harris a “fascist.”
The South Carolina Senator ripped accusations of Trump being fascist as “rhetoric that’s dangerous and off-base,” but struggled to counter when Trump was shown using the same language against his competition.
Speaking to Jonathan Karl on ABC’s This Week, Graham attacked former generals John Kelly and Mark Milley for describing Trump as fascist while reflecting on their time in his administration.
“You‘re the ones that wanna weigh in. Okay, if you wanna call him Hitler,” he said of the generals’ about-turn.
“They didn’t call him Hitler, what they did is they warned of what they saw,” Karl interrupted.
“They’re trying to scare Americans that this man can’t fix the problems we need fixed. I reject that. I was there, too. I was around him, I don‘t think he’s a fascist!” Graham said.
Karl soon touched on the actions of Mike Johnson and Mitch McConnell, who spoke out this week to say that accusations of fascism could put Trump at risk of danger of violence.
Use of the term “risks inviting yet another would-be assassin to try robbing voters of their choice before Election Day,” they said in a joint statement.
However, Karl was quick to note that–while Harris answered “Yes, I do,” when asked if she thought Trump was a fascist– the Republican nominee has used the term against her plenty of times.
“Let me just play you a little bit about what Donald Trump has had to say about Kamala Harris,” he invited.
A montage played, showing Trump calling Harris a fascist at multiple different events over the summer.
“She’s a radical left, Marxist, communist fascist,” he said in the last clip shown from September.
“Why don‘t you ask me ’do I think Kamala Harris is a fascist?’ No. Do I think she‘s a communist? No. I think she‘s the most liberal person to ever be dominated by a major party. I think she‘s ineffective, I think she’s incompetent,” Graham said immediately after the video.
He then returned to pointing out Harris’ flaws, but was brought back to the video by Karl.
“Well, we can acknowledge when it comes to the insults, they come just as strong–maybe stronger–,” Karl prompted.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. You‘re not having Lindsey Graham call her a fascist!” Graham cut in.
“She’s just incompetent, and incapable, and would be a lousy president,” he said.
