On Friday, Republican Voters Against Trump released a new advertisement aimed at South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham , The Hill reported.
The minute-long video clip opens with footage of Graham slamming then-candidate Donald Trump during a 2015 appearance on CNN. “He’s a race baiting, xenophobic religious bigot. You know how you make America great again? Tell Donald Trump to go to Hell,” the senator can be heard saying in the video.
The ad continues with a brief clip of Graham’s 2015 interview with HuffPost , during which he praised former Vice President Joe Biden , the Democratic Party’s presumptive 2020 presidential nominee. “If you can’t admire Joe Biden as a person, you’ve got a problem. You need to do some self-evaluation, ’cause, what’s not to like?” Graham says in the video.
“He’s said some of the most incredibly heartfelt things that anybody could ever say to me. He’s the nicest person I think I’ve ever met in politics,” the South Carolina Republican is heard saying.
The ad also features an audio clip of Graham warning that the Republican Party would lose the “moral authority” to govern if it did not reject then-presidential candidate Trump. Graham is heard describing the 2016 Republican presidential primaries as a “defining moment” for the GOP’s future.
The clips ends with footage of Trump holding up a bible while posing for photographs outside St John’s Church in Washington, D.C. The president participated in the photo-op after ordering security forces to crack down on the demonstrations in front of the White House.
The Republican group’s advertisement will air on Fox News in Washington, D.C., Charlotte, North Carolina and Greenville, South Carolina.
Like many Republican politicians, Graham initially opposed Trump. However, after Trump won the 2016 presidential election, Graham became one of his closest allies in the United States Senate.
Earlier this week, Graham convincingly won the Republican Party primary in his state, fending off three challengers. Days before the primary, Trump formally endorsed the senator, calling him a “good friend and strong voice for the people of South Carolina.”
“Lindsey has my Complete and Total Endorsement!” Trump tweeted.
In November, Graham will compete against Democrat Jaime Harrison. Harrison, the first African-American chairman of South Carolina’s Democratic Party, appears to be a formidable opponent. As Newsweek reported, some polls suggest that the race is now much closer than previous contests.
Losing Graham’s seat in the Senate would be devastating for the Republican Party, which seems to be struggling on multiple fronts. According to latest polling from CNN , Biden is 14 points ahead of Trump nationwide.
