Former Vice President Joe Biden’s Democratic presidential primary campaign has been faltering somewhat recently, but he’s still in the game for now. This weekend, during an appearance on Meet the Press, he denounced ardent Trump ally and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who’s helped lead the charge of the president’s attacks on his opponents throughout recent months and years. Biden zeroed in on the fact that even when Trump spent days on end publicly wound up against Graham’s late friend, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the cowardly South Carolina Senator stayed mostly quiet.
Biden’s idea is that he would counter these gross breaches of basic decency if he got elected president. He commented to host Chuck Todd:
‘You know, I went out of my way for Lindsey, and Lindsey recorded things that were, oh, what a wonderful guy I am, but when I watched how Lindsey responded under pressure to his friend John McCain — John and I went after each other hammer-and-tong, but on his deathbed, he asked me to do his eulogy. We were friends. He was honorable. He was decent. And it just stunned me that he did not respond to the attacks on John that were made by this president so viciously. And the way he hurt the family — I’m not surprised, but I have to tell you, I’m disappointed.’
Watch:
WATCH: Would Joe Biden take Lindsey Graham's phone call? #MTP #IfItsSunday
Biden: "I would be willing talk to him, because I want to know" why Graham took part in attacks. pic.twitter.com/m3OY0IL8iq
— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) February 16, 2020
Trump started attacking McCain all the way back in 2015, when his campaign was just getting started. At the time, he derided McCain’s time as a prisoner of war getting turned into a de facto “war hero” status upon his safe return to the U.S., although that was coming from the guy who, by all appearances, only used his rich privilege to avoid overseas military service and, in its place, called his sexual relations with New York prostitutes his “personal Vietnam” because of the possibility of disease. (Yes, Trump really said that.)
More recently, following McCain’s passing, Trump publicly complained about a laundry list of grievances like the family supposedly failing to thank him for approving the state funeral arrangements, although he didn’t even do that — National Cathedral services don’t even require presidential approval. Lying in state at the Capitol building does — but was Trump really suggesting that he’d have messed around with a deceased Senator lying in state just to prove a political point? That’s exactly what he seemed to suggest, and it’s not wavered Graham from Trump’s side.
During his Meet the Press appearance, Todd also asked Biden if he’d take a call from Graham if he called him up in the case of the former VP getting elected president. Biden explained that yes, he would, because he’d want to know why Graham jumped in with Trump so feverishly. Besides the McCain attacks, Graham has also supported Trump’s effort to go after the Bidens over unfounded corruption allegations.
Biden commented:
‘A president can’t just fight. The president has to be able to forgive… So the dilemma’s been how much do I let my frustrations show?’
In the meantime, Trump certainly isn’t showing any restraint.
. @JoeBiden: "A president can't just fight. The president has to be able to forgive. … So the dilemma's been how much do I let my frustrations show?" #MTP #IfItsSunday
— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) February 16, 2020
