Graham says he won’t be ‘intimidated’ by June 5 debt limit deadline

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said he will not be “intimidated” by the looming deadline of June 5 to raise the debt ceiling.

President Biden and Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) came to an agreement in principle late Saturday to raise the debt ceiling for two years and apply new caps on federal spending. The proposed deal has prompted criticism from both Democrats and Republicans alike, with Graham pushing back on McCarthy saying that the nation’s defense is fully funded.

On “Fox News Sunday,” Graham likened the current debt ceiling situation to the debt ceiling crisis in 2011, saying that the deal made then “virtual destroyed” the defense budget.

“Listen, this is sequestration, potentially, 2.0. In 2011, my good friend Mitch McConnell negotiated a deal with Joe Biden that virtually destroyed the Defense Department in the name of raising the debt ceiling,” Graham said. “If this is another round of sequestration, not only will vote no, I will not be intimidated by June 5th.”

Graham said that while he supports raising the debt ceiling, he will not do it at the “expense” of the military. He also said that the defense spending outlined in the deal was a “joke,” adding that he will not “adopt the Biden defense budget and call it as success.”

“We should raise the debt ceiling but we should not cripple the military’s ability to defend the nation as a trade off, spending below inflation is not fully funding the military,” he added.