Lindsey Graham backs another sexist bigot who once called him 'certifiable'

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) is backing a Republican candidate with a history of sexism, racism, homophobia, and attacks on Graham himself — but this time it’s Minnesota Senate hopeful Jason Lewis instead of Donald Trump.

In an ad posted last week on Facebook by Lewis’ campaign, Graham praises his “friend” and asks for donations for Lewis’ campaign. “I need this guy helping me to get to the bottom of the Mueller hoax and to make sure that this country can move forward,” Graham tells viewers. “Five or 10 bucks goes a long way. Help Jason, he can do this!”

Lewis, a right-wing former talk show host and congressman who served a single term in the U.S. House of Representatives, has a long record of bigotry and offensive comments.

In 1999, he dismissed sexual harassment in schools as “teasing.” In 2011, on his radio show, later, he dismissed the idea that unwanted sexual contact could be traumatizing. saying, “You’ll never get over? It was the most traumatizing experience? Come on! She wasn’t raped.”

In August 2012, he argued that the gender gap in the presidential race between President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney existed because “It is the women who are guided by more emotion than reason.”

That November, he slammed “young single women” for voting Democratic because, he said, they wanted free birth control, scolding, “You have no cognitive function whatsoever, if that’s all it takes to buy you off.”

In other instances, he lamented that men can no longer call a woman “a slut”; said Black people have an “entitlement mentality”; warned that Black and Latinx people are “addicted” to government welfare programs; and compared LGBTQ people to rapists.

Lewis appears in the Facebook ad with Graham, noting that he hopes to “flip the state red” so he can go to the Senate to help Graham. But his past comments suggest that he is not a big fan of the South Carolina Republican.

On the July 21, 2015 episode of his podcast, Lewis mocked Graham as “absolutely certifiable” and said he “will get this country into more foreign affairs and more foreign wars than you can shake a stick at.” He added that “Graham and his group of big-government interventionists” were “no different than Hillary Clinton and John Kerry.”

A few days later, he slammed Graham, as well as Mitch McConnell and John McCain, for supporting the Export-Import Bank of the United States, calling them “establishment types.”

Graham has enthusiastically backed Trump’s reelection, despite Trump’s record of racism and sexism, and has repeatedly abandoned his stated principles to appease Trump.

During the 2016 campaign, Trump called Graham a “disgrace,” a “nut job,” and “one of the dumbest human beings.” Trump even gave out Graham’s personal cellphone number during a campaign speech.

Even with Trump’s support, Graham is facing an unexpectedly tough 2020 reelection race against Democrat Jaime Harrison. The latest polling in South Carolina shows the race tied.

Lewis faces an uphill battle in his race against incumbent Democratic Sen. Tina Smith. According to RealClear Politics’ polling average, Smith leads by 8.5 points.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.