Several Republicans, including South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, have been busted casting doubt on President Donald Trump’s claims of fraud in the 2020 election.
A new report from The New York Times uncovered grand jury testimony from several senior Republican members in which they criticize the president and reveal the lengths he would go to believe the election was indeed stolen.
The testimony was taken in 2022 and released after an order was lifted by judge Scott McAfee of Fulton County Superior Court, who ruled over the Georgia case.
The transcripts, obtained by the Times and taken from the Georgia election interference case, reveal that several vocal Trump supporters, including Graham, considered his claims of fraud to be baseless.
In his testimony, Graham described the president’s claims as “unnerving.” He also told the grand jurors, “I have told him more times than we can count that he fell short,” and “if you told him Martians came and stole votes, he’d be inclined to believe it.”
Denying Trump’s claims of election fraud in Arizona, Graham instead suggested that his failure to secure the state was the result of his attacks on longtime Arizona Senator John McCain.
Trump, who never served in the military and dodged the Vietnam draft, famously called McCain, a Vietnam veteran who spent six years as a prisoner of war, a “loser,” adding, “He’s not a war hero...he’s a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren’t captured.”
“The McCain effect in Arizona was real,” Graham said in his testimony. “And when you look through the suburbs in the states in question, you sort of had a common pattern where President Trump ran behind other Republicans. I was trying to convey that to him.”
“I’m sorry he lost,” Graham added. “But he lost it.”
In September 2023, Graham released a statement following the release of the grand jury report that recommended he be criminally indicted for his role in attempting to overturn the election. He said that, as then-Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, he “had questions” about Georgia’s mail-in ballot process, but ultimately voted to certify the election results from every state.
Graham has emerged as one of the president’s most vocal supporters in the Senate, even going so far as to make bizarre jokes about Trump’s stated desire to run for a third term unconstitutionally.
Trump even embarrassed Graham during a media appearance earlier this month after the senator called Trump’s re-election to the White House “the biggest comeback ever.”
“You think so, really? I didn‘t feel it was a comeback, actually,” Trump replied, prompting Graham to scramble to change the topic. Just days later, Graham dubbed Trump “the greatest president of all time” in an interview with Fox News.
In a statement to the Daily Beast, Graham said of the Times report, “It should be abundantly clear that all of these weaponized investigations against President Trump had one goal: destroy him and his friends no matter the cost. I never suggested, then or now, that President Trump broke the law.”
“Never forget, Fani Willis’ politically driven hit job in Atlanta was willing to indict me simply for being a friend to President Trump. As to that process against me, if I were them, I’d lawyer up,“ the statement continued.
“My views about why I certified the 2020 election are not breaking news. I made it clear, then and now, that President Trump sincerely believed the election was stolen. We had our differences on this point. I would consider myself, then and now, one of his strongest supporters. In my view, President Trump is shaping up to be the GOAT of U.S. presidents.”
Other Republicans also provided testimony casting doubt on the president’s fraud claims, including Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, who called Trump’s attempts to get Georgian lawmakers to intervene a “fruitless exercise,” and former Georgia House Speaker David Ralston, who described Trump’s plan to enlist fake electors in swing states like Georgia “the craziest thing I’ve heard.”
Chris Carr, Georgia’s state attorney general, who is running for governor, revealed in his testimony that Trump had called him to ask him to stop lobbying other state attorneys against joining the lawsuit brought by Texas attorney general Ken Paxton. The suit asked the Supreme Court to stop four swing states—Michigan, Pennsylvania, Georgia and Wisconsin—from casting their votes for Biden.
Paxton told the president that he felt the lawsuit was “legally, factually and constitutionally wrong” but that he was not lobbying other attorneys general. He added that he told Trump of his claims of election fraud, “We’re just not seeing the things that you are seeing.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
A spokeswoman for Mr. Carr said in a statement provided to the New York Times that he “believes the criminal case against President Trump should never have been brought.” Gov. Kemp did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
