Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said he isn’t buying all that Democratic “joy” on display at this past week’s Democratic National Convention in Chicago during a Sunday appearance with Jake Tapper on CNN’s State of the Union.
During their conversation, Tapper brought up the “disciplined” and “well-produced” DNC this week that, as the journalist put it, “conveyed patriotism and unity.” Graham, the senior senator from South Carolina, didn’t see it that way.
“Well, I didn’t see what you saw,” Graham told Tapper with a laugh. “If you’re a Republican, you saw a hate fest. You saw a hate fest full of insults.”
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“Americans are not joyful when they go to the gas station and fill up their car,” he continued. “They’re not joyful when they make their mortgage payment. They’re not joyful when they go to the grocery store. People are hurting, and this whole joy love fest doesn’t exist in the real world.”
To bolster his claim, Graham pointed to the gas prices, the state of the border, and inflation during Donald Trump’s presidency when “the world was not on fire.”
“So 60 percent of Americans are not joyful. They believe their country is going in the wrong direction, and I think President Trump offers the best solution to change the trajectory of the country,” he added.
Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ), who appeared on the program before Graham, saw things differently.
“I think we’re just tired of negative cynicism about America in general,” Booker said after Tapper remarked that “joy” was a theme at the DNC. “It’s about time that our country start plugging into that hopefulness and that joyfulness.”
Joy aside, Graham also addressed Donald Trump’s Friday comment via Truth Social that his “administration will be great for women and their reproductive rights.” A comment many found ironic.
“I know, you need to ask him about that,” Graham told Tapper in response to the comment and its backlash. “What I would say is that President Trump was a very good pro-life president. His position now, as I understand it, is that he’s going to leave the abortion issue to the states. He doesn’t believe there’s a role for the federal government.”
