Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., warned Thursday that the Senate wouldn't hold any confirmation hearings for a new attorney general this year if President Trump fires Jeff Sessions, and warned there could be other repercussions in the Senate.

"If Jeff Sessions is fired, there will be holy hell to pay," Graham said outside a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Thursday.

"The president has a right to fire anybody in his Cabinet ... I think he should show some respect for Jeff Sessions as a person," Graham added. He said Sessions was the "most loyal supporter of Donald Trump" and a "rock solid conservative."

Trump has hounded Sessions by saying he was disappointed in Sessions' decision to recuse himself from the Department of Justice's investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. Had he known Sessions was to recuse, Trump said, he would have never appointed him to be attorney general.

Since then, Trump has called Sessions "beleaguered" and "weak" on Twitter, and has said publicly at the White House that he was "disappointed" in Sessions' decision. Trump also said he wants Sessions to go after leakers in the administration, something Sessions has said he is now pursuing.

Graham was the first Republican to come to the defense of Sessions this week, and told Politico on Wednesday that he called Sessions and told him to "hang in there."

"This effort to basically marginalize and humiliate the attorney general is not going over well in the Senate. I don't think it's going over well in the conservative world. If you believe Jeff Sessions to be fired, use the power you have and accept the consequences," Graham said Thursday.

Democrats suspect that Trump wants to fire Sessions so he can fire Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appointed to oversee the Russia investigation following Session' recusal. But Graham said the Senate would not look kindly on that move, either.

"Any effort to go after Mueller could be the beginning of the end of the Trump presidency unless Mueller did something wrong," Graham warned. "There is no reason to believe Mueller is compromised."

Graham said he will introduce legislation next week with bipartisan support that will make clear that "a special counsel cannot be fired when they were impaneled to investigate the president and his team unless you have judiciary review of the firing."

In March, Graham said during a town hall that Sessions should recuse himself during the Russia investigation.