Lindsey Graham is pushing for a federal corruption investigation into Joe Biden’s contact with Ukrainian officials, but a newly resurfaced video shows that the South Carolina Republican once held a very different view of his former Senate colleague.
Graham has turned from one of Donald Trump’s most vocal critics on the right to one of his most staunch defenders and is now leading the charge against Biden after unfounded claims from Trump that the former vice president was engaged in corruption with Ukraine. As The Daily Beast reported, Graham has sent a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo asking for documents related to contact Biden had with former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko about the firing of the country’s top prosecutor.
Biden led the Obama administration’s campaign to exert pressure on Ukraine to fire prosecutor Viktor Shokin, who was seen across the international community as corrupt. Biden later said that he threatened to withhold aid to Ukraine unless Shokin was fired and a number of Republicans in Congress at the time backed the administration’s approach.
Trump now claims that Biden was trying to prevent Shokin from investigating Burisma Holdings, a company that employed Biden’s son, and Graham is leading that charge. His letter to Pompeo asked for documents related to Burisma.
A number of sources, from the Obama administration to many in the international community, have pushed back against Trump’s claim that Biden was trying to prevent an investigation into his son’s company and said the opposite is actually true. Shokin was accused of turning a blind eye to corruption, including within the energy company where Hunter Biden served on the board of directors.
As Graham has taken action against Biden, a viral video has spread across social media that shows the South Carolina senator praising Biden following the death of the former vice president’s son, Beau. In the video, Graham grew emotional as he spoke about his connection to Biden and the admiration of his character.
“If you can’t admire Joe Biden as a person there’s probably—you got a problem and you need to do some self-evaluation because what’s not to like?” Graham said in the 2016 clip from The Huffington Post .
Today I began an investigation into the Bidens. Did the Biden’s do anything wrong? NO. Am I doing this to make @realDonaldTrump look innocent? YES. WHATEVER YOU DO, DO NOT WATCH THE VIDEO BELOW!! IT WILL MAKE ME LOOK LIKE A MONSTER… pic.twitter.com/ZBEe80o4zZ
— Lindsey Graham’s Conscience parody (@LGsConscience) November 22, 2019
Graham went on to say that he talked to Biden after his son’s death and had more kind words for his former Democratic colleague.
“He came to my ceremony and said some of the most incredibly heartfelt things that anybody could ever say to me,” Graham said. “And he’s the nicest person I think I’ve ever met in politics. He is as good a man as God ever created.”