Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) clashed with CNN’s Jake Tapper over the weekend during an interview in which Tapper criticized former President Donald Trump’s comments about Vice President Kamala Harris.
Trump had referred to Harris as “mentally impaired” during a campaign rally, saying, “Kamala is mentally impaired. Joe Biden became mentally impaired. Kamala was born that way… only a mentally disabled person could have allowed this to happen to our country.”
Tapper labeled Trump’s remarks as “insulting” to people with mental impairments, asserting that “Vice President Kamala Harris is not mentally impaired.”
Graham defended Trump, saying he was merely calling Harris a “crazy liberal” and pointed to several instances of what he described as far-Left and harmful policies, such as Harris’ handling of the border, her absence from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech in the U.S., the Afghanistan withdrawal, and support for initiatives like Medicare for All and the Green New Deal.
“I'm not saying she's crazy. I'm saying your policies are batshit crazy.”@LindseyGrahamSC responds to Donald Trump calling Kamala Harris “mentally impaired.” pic.twitter.com/VuzldJ1dk3
— State of the Union (@CNNSOTU) September 29, 2024
“I’m not saying she’s crazy,” Graham clarified. “I’m saying your party, your policies are bats*** crazy.”
Tapper responded, “Well, they’re not my policies,” and began to defend Harris’ absence from Netanyahu’s speech, but Graham interjected, “She didn’t show up.”
Tapper attempted to steer the conversation back to Trump’s rhetoric, stating, “But let’s focus on Trump’s rhetoric, because that’s what I’m actually asking you about.”
Graham countered, “The problems with the world are not Trump’s rhetoric. They call him crazy. Pelosi wanted to invoke the 25th Amendment. Why don’t you ever talk about that?”
Tapper did not engage with Graham’s point about bias and shifted to a new topic.