Sen. Lindsey Graham has been accused of derailing a diplomatic meeting in Munich with an expletive-laden rant and sexist insult leveled at Denmark’s prime minister.
The close ally of President Donald Trump, himself no stranger to vicious verbal attacks against women, is said to have called Mette Frederiksen “little lady” as he looked her “straight in the eye” and “sneered” during the exchange at a Munich Hotel on Saturday, Danish newspaper Berlingske reports.
Graham had been meeting with Frederiksen to discuss Trump’s threats earlier this year to annex Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark, a NATO ally.
Also in attendance at the meeting, held on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, were several members of the House and Senate along with Greenlandic Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen.
Puck first broke news of Graham’s foul-mouthed meltdown Monday. Sources with knowledge of the conversation said he was “combative” and that he threw around “lots of F-bombs,” with one person adding: “Picture Graham on his worst TV day.”
Others described it to Berlingske as “shocking,” “disturbing,” and “extremely inappropriate.” One attendee told the newspaper Graham had also targeted Greenland’s leader, Nielsen, having “yawned directly in his face in a way that could only be perceived as mocking.”
Prior to this outburst, Graham had reportedly boasted about Trump having enormous power as the American president. Democratic Sen. Elissa Slotkin is understood to have been so appalled that she walked out of the room. She reportedly later appeared “visibly shaken.”
Frederiksen, according to Berlingske, is understood to have calmly waited until Graham had finished his outburst before replying: “When you’re done with that, the meeting can continue.”
Graham’s apparently explosive performance behind closed doors would seem to have been presaged by his comments to Politico Friday, when he told the outlet: “Who gives a shit who owns Greenland.”
The president has repeatedly threatened to seize the Arctic territory, by military force if necessary, since assuming office for the second time last year.
Those verbal attacks—which if delivered upon militarily would effectively spell an end to the security alliance that has protected NATO members since 1949—have also increasingly thrown into relief vested interests in Greenland among the MAGA leader’s orbit.
Most notably, Robert Lauder. A longtime friend and donor of Trump’s, the billionaire heir to the Estée Lauder fortune is widely reported to have helped spark the president’s interest in acquiring Greenland at the same time as making sizable commercial investments in the island’s energy and rare-earths sectors.
The Daily Beast has contacted Graham, Frederiksen, Nielsen and Slotkin’s representatives for comment on this story.
