Top Donald Trump ally Steve Bannon has lashed out at South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham for condemning his Republican colleagues for opposing foreign aid bills.
Bannon, a former White House chief strategist, accused Graham of being a "poisonous serpent" after he criticized Ohio Senator J.D. Vance for speaking out against plans to provide billions to Ukraine amid its fight against Russia.
Graham's comments to Fox News about Vance arrived one day after the House passed a $61 billion aid package on Saturday, as well as other bills in support of Israel and Taiwan.
House Speaker Mike Johnson has faced outcry from hardline and MAGA Republicans for trying to pass the President Joe Biden-supported foreign aid bills through the lower chamber, with Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene and Kentucky Representative Thomas Massie warning they would introduce a motion to vacate against Johnson.
While sharing Graham's comments on Vance on conservative social media platform Gettr, Bannon said: "Lindsey Graham is a Poisonous Serpent That is Allowed to Get Near President Trump Spreading His Poison by Operatives Who are NOT America First."
Graham has endorsed Trump in the 2024 election, but the pair have had a sometimes-volatile relationship over the years. Recently, they have clashed over abortion, with the former president recently hitting out at the senator's "unrelenting" calls for stricter abortion limitations, which Trump suggests are hurting the GOP's chances in elections.
Speaking to Fox News on Sunday, Graham discussed a recent opinion piece Vance wrote for The New York Times in which the Ohio senator claimed the money Congress was proposing to send to Ukraine is "a fraction of what it would take to turn the tide" in Ukraine's favor amid its 2-year-old war with Russia.
"Ukraine's challenge is not the G.O.P.; it's math. Ukraine needs more soldiers than it can field, even with draconian conscription policies," Vance wrote. "And it needs more matériel than the United States can provide."
Graham said on Fox News that "if you want American military members to stay out of the fight with Russia, help Ukraine. If they go into a NATO nation, Russia, we're in a fight.
"So, with all due respect to Senator Vance, he's wrong. We were told, within four days, Kyiv would fall," Graham added. "He's wrong about the whole concept that we can deal with multiple problems. This idea that we can't help Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan at the same time, I reject that. I reject it totally."
Newsweek contacted Graham's and Vance's offices via email for comment.
Graham also suggested that Vance join him on an upcoming trip to the region.
"It's one thing to talk about Ukraine over here," Graham said. "It's another thing to go. I challenged JD Vance to go to Ukraine and get a briefing from the Ukrainian military and talk to the Ukrainian people. Then tell me what you think."
Graham also claimed that the foreign aid packages to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan "would not have passed" without Trump.
"I want to thank the House Speaker [Mike Johnson] and [Minority Leader] Hakeem Jeffries working together in a bipartisan fashion to give weapons to Ukraine to fight a fight that matters to us," Graham said.
"And President Trump has created a loan component to this package that gives us leverage down the road."
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Ewan Palmer is a Newsweek News Reporter based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on US politics, domestic policy ... Read more
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