Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a fierce ally of President Trump’s, praised Jill Biden’s speech about her husband, presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, Tuesday night at the Democratic National Convention, calling her an “outstanding person.”
“Tonight, Jill Biden did a very good job representing herself and Joe in the causes they believe in,” Graham wrote on Twitter.
“She’s an outstanding person who has led a consequential life.”
Jill Biden offered an intimate glimpse into her husband and family as the former vice president was officially nominated as the party’s presidential nominee, setting him up to go head-to-head with Trump in November.
The Bidens were previously close, personal friends with Graham and others across the aisle.
Graham in 2015 said in an interview with HuffPost that if you “can’t admire Joe Biden as a person, you’ve got a problem.”
“He’s said some of the most incredibly heartfelt things that anybody could ever say to me. He’s the nicest person I think I’ve ever met in politics,” Graham added at the time.
However, the relationship soured as Graham, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has called for investigations into matters related to Biden’s son Hunter Biden and his business dealings in Ukraine.
“Well, you know, Lindsey — I don’t know what happened to Lindsey. And we used to be great friends and friends with John McCain,” Jill Biden said in February, referring to the late GOP senator from Arizona. “I mean, we traveled together with the Foreign Relations Committee. We’ve had dinner, you know, and now he’s changed.”
When asked if she still considers Graham a friend, Biden responded: “You know, it’s hard when you, I don’t know, consider somebody a friend and then they’ve said so many things, so many negative things. And it’s — that’s been a little hurtful.”
Joe Biden has echoed a similar sentiment, saying he doesn’t “know what happened” to Graham.
“I am disappointed, and quite frankly I’m angered, by the fact — he knows me; he knows my son; he knows there’s nothing to this,” he told CNN’s Don Lemon last November.
Trump was impeached by the House late last year, accused of withholding millions of dollars in security aid for Ukraine for the sole purpose of coercing the country’s leaders to find dirt on the Bidens. He was later acquitted in February by the GOP-controlled Senate.