Supporters of former President Trump booed and called South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham (R) a “traitor” at a rally in the senator’s home state on Saturday.
“Thank y’all for coming. Thank you very much,” Graham said in response to a chorus of boos at the rally for the former president in Pickens, S.C.
“Just calm down for a second. I think you’ll like this,” he added, after waiting several minutes for the crowd to settle to no avail.
Graham, who has had an on-and-off relationship with Trump over the years, touted the “common ground” that he and the former president have found on Saturday.
“It took a while to get there folks, but let me tell you what happened,” he said. “I’ve come to like President Trump and he likes himself and we got that in common. And I’m gonna help him become president of the United States.”
“So let me tell you how you win an election folks — you get people together that don’t agree all the time to agree on the most important things,” Graham added. “My hope is we can bring this party together cause he’s gonna be our nominee.”
The South Carolina senator, who at one point called Trump a “race-baiting, xenophobic religious bigot” during the 2016 campaign, became one of the president’s fiercest supporters in the Senate during his administration.
Graham briefly turned against Trump after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. However, he ultimately endorsed the former president’s 2024 White House bid.
The senator has recently defended Trump in the face of two indictments, saying last month that the latest charges made the former president “stronger” than before.