“You traitor,” a woman yells at the senator in a video as he walks through one of the airport terminals in the Washington, DC area. “Lindsey Graham, you are a traitor to the country.”
In the video, the senator at one point seemed to respond to someone in the crowd, but it is unclear what he said.
A second video posted on YouTube showed that security ended up accompanying him up a ladder.
“You saw how we surrounded him,” said a man in that video after the confrontation ended. “If we were really violent people, we could have done with him right there. But we didn’t, we just asked him questions.”
In another video, obtained by a Politico reporter, a woman dressed in a QAnon shirt is heard saying, “One day they will no longer be able to walk on the street; it is today.”
Asked about the video, Kevin Bishop, the senator’s communications director, told CNN: “We don’t discuss security issues involving Senator Graham.”
A Reagan National Airport spokesman told CNN that there were no charges related to the incident.
The reaction against Graham was sparked after the Republican senator’s criticism of Trump, after a violent pro-Trump crowd attacked the Capitol on Wednesday. The riot came when a joint session of Congress was convened to count the votes of the Electoral College and affirm the victory of President-elect Joe Biden – which Trump repeatedly protested by making false claims that the election was stolen from him.
Graham said at a news conference the following day that the president’s achievements were “tarnished by yesterday” and that the attack “will be an important part of his presidency”.
“When it comes to accountability, the president needs to understand that his actions were the problem, not the solution,” he added.
He also asked Trump to “accept that he fell short” in the election “and a new president will come”, asking him to “lower rhetoric and allow us, as a nation, to heal and move on”.
Graham did not support the objections raised against the Arizona and Pennsylvania electoral votes. Both objections failed in the Senate and Congress ended up ending its vote count to affirm Biden’s victory in the White House.
“You rubbish human being”, a woman is heard screaming in the video. “It will be like this forever, wherever you go, for the rest of your life.”
People in the video can also be heard shouting at Graham, saying he was “part of the Chinese Communist Party”, an apparent allusion to QAnon’s baseless conspiracy theories.
“You don’t represent us anymore,” a person is heard shouting.
Another shouted, “You better enjoy Gitmo.”