Senator Lindsey Graham has said he was wrong to describe Joe Biden as 'the best person' to lead the country after the Ja...
Senator Lindsey Graham has said he was wrong to describe Joe Biden as 'the best person' to lead the country after the January 6 insurrection.
Graham was recorded praising Biden while speaking to New York Times reporter Jonathan Martin on the day of the riot itself - but changed his tune Thursday during an interview on Fox News.
Anchor Jesse Watters asked the South Carolina senator during an evening broadcast whether he stood by his 2021 comments.
'I was wrong,' replied Graham, 66, who has been in the Senate since 2003.
Graham said he had high hopes for the presidency of his friend - but that they were dashed just months later following a series of crises.
'I've known Joe for 30 years. He's a nice guy, but he's been a disaster as president.'
Lindsey Graham appeared on Jesse Watters' Fox News show on Thursday night
Trump's supporters left the rally and surged down towards the Capitol on January 6, 2021. Lindsey Graham that day was speaking to a New York Times reporter
The Capitol is seen under attack on January 6, 2021, as Trump supporters storm the building
The original quote of Graham recommending Trump resign and praising Biden as a unifier was originally shared in a new book Martin wrote with his colleague at the Times, Alexander Burns, titled This Shall Not Pass.
'We'll actually come out of this thing stronger,' Graham told Martin on Jan. 6, 2021.
'Moments like this reset. It'll take a while. People will calm down. People will [say] 'I don't want to be associated with that.' This is a group within a group.
What this does, it'll be a rallying effect for a while, where the country says, 'We're better than this.''
When Martin asks if Biden will help bring the country together after the insurrection, Graham replies: 'Totally'.
He'll add: 'He'll be maybe the best person to have, right?
'I mean, how mad can you get at Joe Biden?'
Though in his interview with Watters Wednesday, Graham said he had changed his mind over the past year.
He was critical of Donald Trump's role in the run-up to the Capitol Riot, and said he had expected Biden, 79, calm the tensions.
'This was literally happening on the day of January 6. And I was hoping he would bring us together,' said Graham.
'Common sense tells you you want the president to be successful.
'But not only has he failed to bring us together. He has made us less safe. He's ruined our economy. All the bad guys are moving around the world.
'They didn't do this on Trump's watch because they were afraid of him.
'Nobody fears Joe Biden abroad, and at home his policies are failing.'
Joe Biden is seen on Thursday outside the White House with the Sultan of Brunei (left) and Indonesia's president, Joko Widodo
Graham said he had been disappointed in his friend, who spent 36 years in the Senate.
'I would have loved him to have been successful, but the truth of the matter is that he has not been,' said Graham.
'So now it's time to pick a new president, that comes in 2024.
'Take back the senate in 2022.
'Help the Ukrainians beat the Russians in Ukraine, so they don't keep going throughout Europe and rewrite the map.
'Trying to stop China from taking Taiwan and secure our border.
'We've got a mess on our hands.
'But do you know what? There's nowhere I'd rather live than the United States.'
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