Defending Donald Trump’s reckless North Korea rhetoric, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham joined the president in beating the war drum loudly on Thursday, saying that the United States will go to war “if we have to.”
The South Carolina senator and failed presidential candidate stood up for Trump’s dangerous war talk by spewing some of his own.
“If we have to, we’ll go to war,” Graham told a South Carolina CBS affiliate.
Full interview:
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Graham said Trump’s “fire and fury” comments, which were received poorly by foreign policy experts, were actually spot on.
“I think he’s trying to put China and North Korea on notice that the game has changed,” the Republican said.
“President Trump is rejecting the doctrine of strategic patience which has failed for 25 years. He’s told me, and I think he’s gonna tell China and North Korea, that he’s not going to allow North Korea to develop a missile with a nuclear weapon on top that can hit America, that if he had to use military force to stop that from happening, he would,” Graham added. “I think that’s the right call because we can’t live as a nation under the threat of nuclear attack from a crazy man in North Korea.”
All of this talk from Lindsey Graham is a far cry from his previous rhetoric on Trump. Take this tweet from last year as an example:
If we nominate Trump, we will get destroyed…….and we will deserve it.
— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) May 3, 2016
As Donald Trump continues to amp up his reckless rhetoric and play nuclear chicken with North Korea, perhaps Sen. Graham should remember what he said last year.
Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.
