
“I want you to use my words against me. … you could use my words against me and you'd be absolutely right.”22
22Sen. Lindsey Graham, U.S. Senator, South Carolina; member, Senate Judiciary Committee, Senate Judiciary Committee business meeting, Washington, D.C., March 10, 2016. Source
Why it’s on the record. Ruth Bader Ginsburg died on Sept. 18, 2020, during the final year of Trump's first term. As Judiciary chairman, Graham ran Amy Coney Barrett's hearings and voted yea when the Senate confirmed her on Oct. 26, 2020, eight days before the election. In 2018 he had repeated the pledge at The Atlantic Festival: 'If an opening comes in the last year of President Trump's term, and the primary process has started, we'll wait to the next election' (Graham's own upload, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cAVTmdRJQM at about 00:20:59).
On the record
Judiciary Republicans were refusing to hold a hearing for Merrick Garland after Justice Scalia's death. Graham said the same rule should bind a future Republican president.
- Said by
- Sen. Lindsey Graham, U.S. Senator, South Carolina; member, Senate Judiciary Committee
- Where
- Senate Judiciary Committee business meeting, Washington, D.C.
- When
- Mar 10, 2016
- Source
- Senate Judiciary Committee business meeting, Washington, D.C., March 10, 2016