Senator Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, clashed with NBC News’ Meet the Press host Kristen Welker on Sunday over criticism from Donald Trump‘s top military adviser Mark Milley who reportedly called the former president a “total fascist.”
Revelations from iconic journalist Bob Woodward’s new book War have set the political world ablaze with revelations of previously undisclosed conversations and comments regarding both the Trump and Biden administrations.
“No one has ever been as dangerous to this country as Donald Trump…[N]ow I realize he’s a total fascist…A fascist to the core!” Milley, who was nominated by Trump to be chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 2018 and served in the role from 2019 to 2023, reportedly told Woodward.
On Sunday, Welker asked the senator about the remarks, noting that Graham, a Trump ally, has previously praised the retired four-star general.
“This is the man who oversaw 20 years—years—of training of the Afghan-Iraqi army that folded like a cheap suit,” the senator said. “I like General Milley, but I disagree with him.”
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Graham then launched into a laundry list of Biden-Harris policies that he believes have hurt the country, adding that “the threat to the world is the policies of this administration.”
“To General Milley, you have a right to your opinion, but I don’t fear Donald Trump,” he said. “I fear what’s going on in the world today. If you want the world to stay on fire, vote for her [Vice President Kamala Harris]; if you want to keep paying high prices for everything, vote for her.”
Welker noted that Graham had previously spoken of “deep admiration and total confidence” in Milley, but Graham cut her off, “I think he’s wrong,” then continued to speak over her, repeating “I think he’s wrong” and then “I think they’re wrong” as Welker named other former Trump staff and allies who have all criticized the former president.
Trump’s former chief of staff John Kelly told The New York Times last year that the former president “was always telling me that we need to use the F.B.I. and I.R.S. to go after people – it was constant and obsessive.”
Welker clarified that this was in relation to Trump’s desire to target his political opponents “repeatedly.” Graham continued to insist that he thought “they were totally wrong.”
Newsweek has reached out to Graham’s office for comment on Sunday morning via email. Newsweek also reached out via email on Sunday to Georgetown University where Milley is a distinguished fellow in residence for comment from him.
WATCH: Donald Trump’s former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, allegedly called the former president a “fascist.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham: “To General Milley, you have a right to your opinion, but I don’t fear Donald Trump.” pic.twitter.com/J3jE8vyyAB
— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) October 20, 2024
Trump’s campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung previously told Newsweek in an email statement about Milley’s statements, “Woke train-wreck Mark Milley clearly suffers from Trump Derangement Syndrome and it’s no surprise he pals around with a washed-up fiction writer like Bob Woodward to peddle lies and misinformation. If Milley spent this much time and effort doing his job, maybe the Afghanistan debacle would have never happened.”
Cheung was referring to the 13 American service members killed during the Afghanistan War withdrawal in 2021. In late August of that year, a suicide bomber attacked Kabul’s airport as U.S. troops and Afghans desperately tried to evacuate the country. Over 170 Afghans were killed alongside the 13 U.S. service members. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack.
While the Pentagon concluded that the deaths at Kabul’s airport were not preventable, some blamed the Biden administration for a chaotic evacuation that should have started earlier than it did.
Meanwhile on Sunday, Graham also took aim at the string of Republicans, including former officials, who have spoken out in support of Harris, the Democratic nominee, including former chair of the House Republican Conference Liz Cheney and her father former Vice President Dick Cheney.
“Every Republican supporting her, what the hell are you doing? You’re supporting the most radical nominee in the history of American politics,” Graham said. “The Green New Deal, Medicare for all—she was the last person in the room before Biden decided to withdraw from Afghanistan.”
He added: “She was the border czar. She cast a tie-breaking vote for the Inflation Reduction Act that gives you high prices. What are you doing? You’re trying to convince me that Donald Trump’s rhetoric is the danger to this country? The danger to this country is the policies of Biden and Harris. Her fingerprints are all over this disaster, and I can’t take four more years of this crap.”
When it comes to the southern border, fact-checkers have pointed out, however, that Harris was not the “border czar”; instead, she served as a liaison to Central American nations and was charged with helping work with those countries to address the root causes for illegal immigration.
