Thread by @mkraju

Asked Lindsey Graham if it’s racist to chant “send her back,” and he said: “No, I don’t think it’s racist to say, was it racist to say love it or leave it? I don’t think a Somali refugee embracing Trump would have been asked to go back.

”If you’re a racist you want everyone from Somalia to go back because they’re black or their Muslim. That’s not what this is about to me... What this is about to me, is these four congressmen in their own way have been incredibly provocative,” he said

Asked Graham about McCain telling a woman in 2008 that Obama isn’t Muslim. “I’m proud of John, you know, my policy differences with President Obama were real but I never doubted that he loved the country.”

Q: President Trump would never do that.

Graham: “No, he took a different tack, he’s fighting back but I don’t remember treating President John McCain the way they’re treating President Trump. I don’t remember John McCain having to go through this crap everyday. All the time”