MAGA Turns on Lindsey Graham Over His Criticism of Trump’s Pardons
South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham incited the fury of President Donald Trump’s most fervent supporters after describing the president’s decision to pardon more than 1500 Jan. 6 insurrectionists as a “mistake”—with one former prisoner slamming Graham as a “Republican in name only.”
During a segment on NBC’s Meet the Press Sunday, host Kristen Welker asked Graham if he believed that Trump was “wrong to issue these blanket pardons” to hundreds of 1,500 defendants convicted for their connection to the Capitol riot in 2021.
“Number one, he had the legal authority to do it,” Graham replied. “But I fear you will get more violence. Pardoning the people who went into the Capitol and beat up a police officer violently, I think, was a mistake, because it seems to suggest that’s an OK thing to do.”
Derrick Evans, a former member of the West Virginia House of Delegates who was sentenced to three months in prison in June 2022 for his involvement in the riots, clapped back at Graham’s comments on X and insinuated that the 20-plus year veteran of the U.S. Senate was not a true member of the GOP.
“Senator Graham calls Trump’s decision to pardon January 6th protestors a ‘mistake,’” Evans wrote on X Sunday. “I’m one of those J6 Prisoners who received a pardon and Lindsey is a RINO [Republican in Name Only] POS.”
A host of other MAGA supporters echoed Evans’ sentiment and voiced their frustration over Graham’s “circus” politics.
“Lindsey Graham’s political career is like a circus—except no one’s buying tickets anymore, and the clown’s lost the plot,” one user wrote on X.
Another added, “I lost respect for Lindsey Graham in 2016. Who cares what he says.”
“Actions speak louder than words. And Lindsey Graham is a COWARD,” a third user wrote.
On the first day of his administration, Trump announced he would blanket pardon nearly all of the criminal defendants involved in the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot.
Throughout his campaign trail last year, the president repeatedly promised to pardon Jan. 6 prisoners whom he referred to as “hostages” and “patriots.”