On the same day Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-GA) blasted President Donald Trump for “deplorable” attacks on his late colleague, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) also unleashed an attack — on people criticizing Trump.

Days after attacking McCain, who died last August, for not voting for his TrumpCare legislation to take health insurance coverage away from 16 million people, Trump continued to go after him on Wednesday. In an official presidential speech in Ohio, Trump complained that McCain “didn’t get the job done” for veterans and noted that he had not been thanked for letting his former rival have the funeral he’d requested before his death.

Graham was famously a close friend of McCain’s. The two — with former Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) — called themselves “the Three Amigos,” a nickname reportedly bestowed upon them by former CIA director David Petraeus. But while he said he disagreed with the president’s comments and believed they hurt Trump more than McCain, Graham seemed more upset with the people who are objecting to the attacks.

In video posted by Graham’s communications director, Graham said: “A lot of people are coming to John’s defense now that called him crazy and a warmonger. So it’s kinda interesting to see the politics of how this dispute’s being used to bash Trump by people who were against both Trump and McCain.”

Today in Seneca @LindseyGrahamSC again discussed @SenJohnMcCain. Graham also spoke about McCain earlier this week in Mount Pleasant. pic.twitter.com/D1FjAluFOR — Kevin Bishop (@KevinDBishop) March 20, 2019

McCain was a strong proponent of military intervention abroad. He fiercely backed President George W. Bush’s Iraq War, suggested that U.S. troops could stay there for 100 years, and once sang “Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran” to the tune of the Beach Boys hit “Barbara Ann.”


Graham’s office did not immediately respond to a ThinkProgress inquiry asking who the South Carolina senator was referencing and whether he believes it is inappropriate for people who disagreed with McCain’s hawkish foreign policy views to also disagree with the president obsessively attacking a deceased rival.