An MSNBC report described Graham at the Kamas Valley Lions Club where, after he blew out of the sky a pigeon that had banked hard to the portside, another attendee exclaimed, “That was a hard left, that was Elizabeth Warren right there!”

Clay pigeons, to be exact. Graham hosted a skeet-shooting event during last weekend’s “Experts and Enthusiasts” Utah retreat convened by former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney. And Graham gleefully gunned down targets named after potential rivals from across the aisle.

Senator Lindsey Graham, the South Carolina Republican running for president, names his pigeons.

Getting into the spirit of things, Graham replied, “All right, do a Bernie Sanders! Pull.” Graham fired, again finding his mark. “Hey! Sorry about that, Bernie!”


Democrats called Graham’s remarks insensitive. “Offensive, outrageous, and totally unacceptable,” Democratic National Committee spokeswoman Kaylie Hanson said in an email.

But a Graham spokeswoman said that the senator’s habit of referring to his pigeons with proper nouns is not confined to Democrats and, she said, “He’s clearly doing it in jest.”

“I am sure that I have been a pigeon at some point,” said the spokeswoman, Brittany Bramell.

Jim O’Sullivan can be reached at jim.osullivan@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JOSreports.