Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., on Thursday says he does not remember anyone treating former Sen. John McCain the way they are treating President Donald Trump.
Graham also claimed Trump's supporters' chants of "send her back," a reference to Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., at a rally Wednesday night were not racist.
"I don't think it's racist to say 'send her back,'" Graham told reporters on Capitol Hill per Mediate. "I don't think a Somali refugee embracing Trump would be asked to go back. If you're racist, you want everybody to go back because they are black or Muslim. That's not what this is about. What this is about to me is that these four congresswoman, in their own way, have been incredibly provocative."
"If you think he's as racist, that's up to you. I don't," Graham added.
Graham also noted "for President Trump, if you embrace his policies, doesn't matter where you come from, he probably likes you."
When asked by a reporter how Trump has changed the Republican Party since McCain, Graham answered McCain did not "have to go through this crap every day."
CNN reporter Manu Raju pressed Graham on the statement, noting: "John McCain, when he, in 2008, went up to that woman and famously at the rally and said that Barack Obama is not a Muslim, how much has this party changed since —," before Graham cut him off.
"He took a different — different tack," Graham said. "He's fighting back. I don't remember anybody treating John McCain the way they're treating Trump. I don't remember John McCain having to go through this crap every day. All the time."
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