A day after Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) announced his plans to run for leader again, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) obediently fired a shot across the bow on Wednesday night on behalf of former President Donald Trump, who’s declared war on McConnell for insufficient loyalty.
Graham told Fox News host Sean Hannity that he likes McConnell, “but here’s the question: Can Senator McConnell effectively work with the leader of the Republican Party, Donald Trump?”
“I’m not going to vote for anybody for leader of the Senate as a Republican unless they can prove to me that they can advocate an ‘American First’ agenda and have a working relationship with President Trump,” the South Carolina Republican declared. “Because if you can’t do that, you will fail.”
Graham’s warning was a notable ramp up of his fervid loyalty to Trump and simultaneous attacks on McConnell for clashing with the ex-president.
Though Graham had similarly asserted last month that anyone who wants to be a Republican leader in Congress needs to be able to work with Trump or else “you cannot be effective,” he didn’t go as far as openly threatening to vote against McConnell for not kowtowing to the former president.
Meanwhile, Trump has been gunning for McConnell’s ouster as leader out of rage over the Kentucky senator supposedly not defending him nor obstructing Democrats’ agenda enough for the ex-president’s liking.
Trump has also been spouting off unhinged rants about McConnell, who is, among other things, a “dumb son of a bitch” and a “fool,” not to mention an “Old Broken Crow.”
