- Senator Lindsey Graham told Fox News on Tuesday that Republicans should unite under Trump.
- “We have no chance of getting the majority without Donald Trump,” said Graham.
- Graham called McConnell after he scolded Trump for his role in the Capitol siege.
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The Republican Party has remained divided since the January 6 turmoil, but Senator Lindsey Graham has an idea on how to unite the Republican Party: stay with Donald Trump.
“I know Trump may be a handful, but he is the most dominant figure in the Republican Party,” the South Carolina senator told Sean News of Fox News on Tuesday evening.
Graham addressed his comments directly to Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, who fiercely rebuked Trump on Saturday for provoking the Capitol insurrection on January 6.
Graham argued that McConnell’s view of Trump is not “widely shared” by the majority of the party, and that the Kentucky senator would be wise to realize this.
“Trump is the most important Republican in the party,” said Graham. If McConnell doesn’t agree, “he is missing out a lot”.
Leading Republicans took conflicting positions on how to lead in the post-Trump era. McConnell, for example, has distanced himself from the former president since the attack on the Capitol. He joined 42 Republican senators, including Graham, in the vote to absolve Trump in his impeachment trial. But McConnell said over the weekend that Trump “hasn’t gotten away with anything yet” because of his role in the deadly turmoil and could face legal consequences as an ordinary citizen.
Trump issued a harsh response to McConnell on Tuesday, calling the main Republican a “sullen, taciturn and serious political hack”.
The rivalry left Graham shaken over the future of the Republican Party, which hopes to turn the House and the Senate in 2022 and win back the White House in 2024. Democrats now have full political control, with small majorities in Congress.
“They are now in each other’s throats,” said Graham. “I’m more concerned with 2022 than ever. I don’t want to eat our own.”
Graham, an important ally of Trump’s during his term, said the former president is instrumental in winning the next election. “We have no chance of getting the majority without Donald Trump. If you don’t get it, you’re just not looking, ”he said.
McConnell, for his part, told Politico over the weekend that his main goal is to elect Republicans, regardless of whether they are in Trump’s camp.
“Some of them may be people who like the ex-president,” he said. “Some of them may not be. The only thing that interests me is eligibility.”
Last month, after Democrats won two Senate seats in Georgia, Trump became the first president since 1932 to lose re-election, the House and the Senate during his term.