Trump claims Lindsey Graham called him 45 mins after pivotal Jan. 6 moment and said: ‘I’ve made a big mistake’

Trump claims Lindsey Graham called him 45 mins after pivotal Jan. 6 moment and said: ‘I’ve made a big mistake’ It is impossible to verify the president’s claim because Graham is now dead - Bookmark - CommentsGo to comments President Donald Trump on Monday claimed the late South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham almost immediately apologized for making a public break with him in the hours after a mob of his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol. During a phone-in interview with Fox & Friends, Trump praised Graham, who died late Saturday, for remaining loyal to him, giving a “99 instead of 100” with the sole exception of “one bad moment” — a viral speech delivered in the Senate chamber while debating whether to reject Arizona’s 2020 electoral votes for Joe Biden. “Now he had one bad moment, and that was you know on the January 6 thing ... then he called me like about 40 minutes later, and he said, ‘Did I really say that? I can't believe it,’ and he took it back ... so I give him a 99 instead of a 100,” Trump said. The president was referring to remarks Graham had made on the Senate floor after the upper chamber reconvened in the late hours of January 6, 2021, after law enforcement and National Guard soldiers cleared the Capitol complex of a pro-Trump mob who had stormed the building to prevent Congress from certifying Biden’s victory. Graham, who had become a staunch ally of the president despite having run against him four years earlier, became emotional as he recalled how he and Trump “have had a hell of a journey” and called him “a consequential president.” “But today, the first thing you will see, all I can say is, count me out. Enough is enough,” he said before adding moments later that Biden and then-California senator Kamala Harris had been “lawfully elected.” Now, with Graham dead, Trump claims he almost immediately called him to walk it back. “That was his only bad moment. He said, ‘I wish I never said it,’ but about 45 minutes later, he called. He said: ‘I made a big mistake,’” he said. There is no evidence to support the president’s assertion that Graham called him in the moments after his emotional Senate floor speech. Both the Senate and House remained in joint session to count electoral votes until nearly 4:00 am on January 7, 2021. And White House phone logs obtained by the House January 6 select committee do not show any contact between Trump and Graham that day. But Graham’s break with Trump would only last for so long. Within days, he was back in the fold after being harassed and verbally abused by a group of the president’s supporters as he walked through Washington National Airport for a flight home to South Carolina. Join our commenting forum Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies Comments