Senator Lindsey Graham went out of his way to separate Donald Trump from the controversy surrounding North Carolina gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson. The South Carolina Republican is, as expected, standing by his man Trump, but the irony in his apology is too obvious to ignore.
CNN reported last week that Robinson, who Trump has described as “Martin Luther King on steroids,” had once described himself as a black Nazi and longed for the return of slavery on a pornography website message board; Robinson denies making the posts.
Graham said on NBC News’ “Meet the Press” over the weekend that Robinson should defend himself. Speaking to Sean Hannity the next day, he sounded like he wanted to throw Robinson under the bus.
Democrats “are trying to make people believe that Donald Trump somehow has something to do with Mar — with this Robinson guy,” Graham said, while withholding Robinson’s name.
Of course, it’s not that difficult to make people believe that Trump… somehow involved with Robinson, as the former president has supported and praised him repeatedly — even holding a fundraiser for him at Mar-a-Lago.
Graham also told Hannity, “It would be unfair to say that someone you wrote a letter about or even your own pastor — you’re responsible for all the stupid things they did. We would be politically crucified if we did that.”
Of course, Republicans did doing what Graham described – with Barack Obama, when they attacked the then-presidential candidate in 2008 over comments made by Jeremiah Wright, his then-pastor.
Wright and Robinson are not one and the same. But it is worth noting that Obama ultimately did condemn Wright. And Republicans still tried to use Wright as a weapon to attack him years later.
Contrast that with the current situation. Robinson is merely a politician supporting Trump, not his pastor. And instead of condemning him, Trump has not even retracted his endorsement (as of Tuesday afternoon) or even said a word about Robinson’s latest controversy.
Graham’s apology could not have been more desperate or further from reality.
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
