This is long overdue. Nearly six months after Joe Biden won the presidential election, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham says he accepts the results. The Republican made the remarks while talking to reporters in his home state Monday.
“I accept the results of the election. ….2020 is over for me, I’m ready to march on and hopefully take back the House and the Senate in 2022.”
The comments are noteworthy since Graham is one of former President Donald Trump’s most ardent supporters, and Trump has continued to push his lies that the election was stolen from him. There is little doubt that Graham’s comments will not go over well at Mar-a-Lago, where the Big Lie about the 2020 election is always the number one topic of conversation.
It should be noted that while Graham said he accepts the results, he supports fixing what nearly all non-partisan election experts say isn’t broken and revamping election laws heading into the crucial 2022 midterms.
Graham in particular, highlighted tighter voter ID requirements. “I think what we need to do is reform election systems. …So I think it’s smart to reform our laws to make sure you are who you are,” he said.
Republican-controlled state legislatures around the country have introduced 361 bills in 47 states and passed a number of laws in the wake of Biden’s win that critics say is nothing more than voter-restriction efforts.
Graham almost seemed to be trying to get under Trump’s skin by also seeming to dismiss the audit happening in Arizona’s Maricopa County, a partisan stunt that has made the state’s election apparatus a national embarrassment. Graham said, when asked about the vote re-count in Arizona, “I don’t know what the audit is all about in Arizona … but I’m ready to move on.”
Last week, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy also seemed to signal he was moving on, while Trump has made it clear he is still fixated on his conspiracy theories about the election.