Back to tweeting from #TheAtlanticFest. Now onstage: @JeffreyGoldberg interviewing @LindseyGrahamSC. "A vacuum is being left in the Senate," Graham says of John McCain, adding that McCain and Teddy Kennedy would lead any history of the modern Senate.
"I called him every name I could think of and literally ran out of names," Graham says of his lining up with Trump after the election. Defines his job WRT Trump: "To counsel the president when he asks for my advice, help him where I can and say no where I must."
Graham defends Trump's insulting of Dr. Ford last night. "Everything he said was factual," he says. "This is what you get when you go through a trailer park with a $100 bill." Audience gasps. Somebody in my row: "Are you fucking kidding me?"
Graham says he's quoting James Carville speaking, I think, about Clinton's accusers and says he didn't approve of Trump's tone. Adds "I thought Kavanaugh was treated like crap." Boos erupt.
Graham says he listened respectfully to Ford. "Everything else I know in the record about Brett Kavanaugh is that he's not Bill Cosby, he's not Harvey Weinstein," he says. "What this is about is power."
Graham: "He denied it in a passionate, effective way. He had a calendar." Audience LOLs. "No prosecutor in the country could have gotten out of the batter's box with this allegation."
Goldberg asks about Kavanaugh's judicial temperament: "Why was he not disqualified by his partisan performance?" Graham: "It's like running over somebody, getting out and accusing them of denting your fender. What would you do?"
Graham says he voted for Sotomayor and Kagan without qualms. The words "Merrick Garland" have yet to escape his lips.
Garland finally came up. "The primary process is ongoing," Graham says of 2016. "If you look back at 100 years, nobody's been replaced in that circumstance." He says he'll apply the same standard if a SCOTUS opening happens in 2020: "We'll wait til the next election."
Graham has doubts about Trump's North Korea strategy: "I"m worried that North Korea is dividing us from South Korea." And he really doesn't like Trump's "fell in love" line: "This love crap needs to stop. There's nothing to love about Kim Jong Un." Audience applauds.
Graham's advice to Trump on Afghanistan: "What is winning, Mr. President?," he says. "Winning is over the arc of time, where terrorism becomes an ember instead of a flame." He adds: "You've got to invest in the lives of others to win this war. Killing will only take you so far."
A source for that Carville reference--a Mike Royko column from 1997 quoting Carville about Paula Jones: articles.sun-sentinel.com/1997-01-29/new…
