Graham turned from one of Trump’s biggest critics before the 2016 election into one of his biggest boosters, even eventually walking back his temporary criticism of the former president following his incitement of the deadly U.S. Capitol riot.
But on whether Graham would endorse Trump if he announced a new run (as expected) at what he’s teased as a major announcement coming on Tuesday, Politico reported the South Carolina Republican said: “Let’s see what he says … I’ll tell you after Georgia,” referencing the runoff election between incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock (D) and Trump-backed Herschel Walker (R).
Graham’s apparent reluctance to go all in for Trump again echoes that of other Republicans who have urged Trump to postpone throwing his hat into the ring until after the Georgia vote, following the GOP’s worse-than-anticipated results in the 2022 midterms, which many critics have put down to Trump.
“I think he needs to put it on pause. Absolutely,” former Trump White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said last week of the possible announcement by her former boss.
That, though, was before Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto’s (D-Nev.) win over Republican Adam Laxalt in Nevada maintained Democratic control of the U.S. Senate.
