Lindsey Graham swings and misses and falls down

| 6:04 pm EDT March 17, 2019
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Donald Trump has launched two berserk attacks against the late John McCain in the past two days. In an alternate universe where Lindsey Graham is still Lindsey Graham, he’s surely throwing fire at Trump as we speak. But back in this universe, where Lindsey Graham is now behaving like some kind of meth-addled Kremlin asset who’s been ordered to protect Trump at all costs, he’s responding in rather different fashion.

Four hours after Donald Trump hurled his second series of false and misleading insults at John McCain, his longtime “best friend” Lindsey Graham finally spoke up and said something about the matter: “As to @SenJohnMcCain and his devotion to his country: He stepped forward to risk his life for his country, served honorably under difficult circumstances, and was one of the most consequential senators in the history of the body. Nothing about his service will ever be changed or diminished.”

Unfortunately for Graham, that’s not the kind of response that anyone was looking for. Though his words about John McCain seem heartfelt, he’s clearly afraid to criticize Donald Trump for attacking McCain, or even mention Trump’s name. Various observers pointed out that while Graham made a point of tagging @SenJohnMcCain in the hope of getting the attention of McCain’s followers, he didn’t dare tag @RealDonaldTrump for fear that Trump might see it.

We’ve seen Lindsey Graham take people’s heads off on a regular basis. But when it comes to defending his best friend in life, who happens to be a recently deceased American war hero, it’s clear that Graham is at least as worried about offending Putin’s man Donald Trump as he is about honoring America’s man McCain.