Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Thursday said his personal relationship with President Biden hit a breaking point after the United States’ withdrawal from Afghanistan, saying he “will never forgive” the president.
Graham, during an interview on Fox News’s “America’s Newsroom,” said issues that arose from the troop withdrawal were “all so preventable,” before reflecting on his damaged personal relationship with the president.
“I’ve known Joe Biden for a long time, I had a good personal relationship with him. He’s a decent man. But what he did in Afghanistan I will never forgive him for, he has blood on his hands, and he’s made America less safe,” Graham said.
He said Biden has been “the most consistently wrong man on foreign policy in my lifetime,” adding, “When it comes to Joe Biden, he’s made America less safe, he’s acted in a very dishonorable way.”
“I can’t wait until the next election to stop this socialist train on the domestic side, and have a chance to get a commander in chief that knows how to keep this country safe,” the senator said.
The personal relationship between Graham and Biden has been widely known for years, beginning when the two served in the Senate together, though the friendship has appeared to weaken amid tense partisanship throughout Washington.
Graham spoke about his friendship with Biden in 2015, calling the then-vice president “the nicest person I think I’ve ever met in politics” and “as good a man as God ever created.”
“If you can’t admire Joe Biden as a person, you’ve got a problem. You need to do some self-evaluation, because what’s not to like?” Graham added.
In December, however, their relationship hit a public rift when Biden, during an interview, called Graham “a personal disappointment” when asked about their relationship.
The senator, a close ally of former President Trump, was at first slow to recognize Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election. He had also called for a special prosecutor to look into the business dealings of Hunter Biden, the president’s son.
Graham dismissed the criticism from Biden days later, saying he likes both the then-president-elect and his wife, Jill Biden, before noting that he was “disappointed” that Biden was “clueless” and let his son take advantage of his perch as vice president.
Their relationship reached a boiling point amid the Afghanistan withdrawal in August, when Graham said he thinks “Joe Biden deserves to be impeached” for his handling of the withdrawal.