Sen. Mark Kirk regrets calling Lindsey Graham a 'bro with no ho'

Sen. Mark Kirk said in an interview that he regrets referring to Sen. Lindsey Graham as a “bro with no ho” but declined to clarify or further explain his controversial remark.

One of the most vulnerable Senate Republicans in 2016, Kirk (R-Ill.) made the remark about Graham during a Senate Appropriations Committee markup session on Thursday. The Huffington Post, which first reported on the comment, posted audio of the hot mic incident.


“I’ve been joking with Lindsey,” Kirk said, according to audio from the Huffington Post. “Did you see that? He’s going to have a rotating first lady. He’s a bro with no ho.”

After emerging from a meeting in the office of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), the usually outspoken Kirk was mostly mum about what he’d said about Graham, a longtime bachelor with White House ambitions.

“No. No, comment,” Kirk said. Asked if he regretted the comment, Kirk responded: “I do.”

The Illinois senator said he had not spoken to Graham since the incident. An aide called the quip a “joke between friends.”

Democrats have been making hay of the offhand remark, circulating it instantly to the media after it was made.

It’s one of several hot-button comments that Kirk has made this year, including suggesting that the GOP should put coffins outside Democratic offices if there was a terrorist attack during a Homeland Security shutdown and saying people “drive faster” through black neighborhoods.

Graham has made light of his bachelorhood, joking this week that if he wins the presidency, he would have a “ rotating first lady.” The 59-year-old South Carolina senator has never married and has no children.