Graham harassed at airport after opposing Electoral College challenges

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) was harassed at an airport in Washington, D.C., on Friday, a day after Congress formally tallied President-elect Joe Biden’s Electoral College win.

Multiple videos posted to social media on Friday show Graham, who has been among President Trump’s most vocal Senate supporters, being followed through an airport and being heckled as a “traitor.” 

Graham was buffered from the group by uniformed law enforcement as well as a security detail. A spokesperson for Graham declined to weigh in, saying that they don’t comment on security issues.

The group, many of whom were filming the incident, appeared to be Trump supporters who believe conspiracy theories about the election. Trump has claimed for weeks that the election was “rigged,” despite losing dozens of legal challenges and election experts dismissing claims of fraud.

At one point members of the group yell “audit the vote” and “you know it was rigged,” in reference to the presidential election, and call him a “piece of shit.”

Members of the group who followed and heckled Graham through the airport also include known supporters of QAnon, a baseless conspiracy theory that asserts that a group of Satan-worshipping, child-molesting Democrats and deep-state government officials has global control, and Trump is trying to expose them.

The confrontation comes a day after Congress tallied Biden’s win, a process that was delayed for hours after rioters overtook the Capitol, forcing lawmakers to move to secure locations as the mob vandalized leadership offices.

Graham has been one of Trump’s most vocal supporters in the Senate since 2017, but came out against challenging the election results through Congress. The effort was guaranteed to fall short regardless because a majority of both the House and Senate is required to successfully challenge a state’s Electoral College vote.

Graham, speaking on the Senate floor late Wednesday, said “enough is enough.”

“Trump and I, we had a hell of a journey. I hate it being this way. … All I can say is count me out. Enough is enough. … We’ve got to end it,” Graham said, referring to the fight over the election results.