Susan Rice rips into “piece of shit” Lindsey Graham
Susan Rice, who served as President Barack Obama’s National Security Advisor for nearly four years, just did something that Donald Trump would call “telling it like it is.” In a taping this week for the “Pod Save the World” podcast, Rice made the following frank assessment about Sen. Lindsey Graham: “He’s been a piece of shit. I said it, I said it, damnit. Finally. He’s a piece of shit!” There are many reasons why this vulgar term aptly describes Graham, especially since he has embraced his new purpose in life as one of the Russia-backed Trump kakistocracy’s most shameless defenders.
So far, Graham has not responded to Rice. It makes you wonder if this is because, somewhere deep down—in a sliver of his soul that was spared so that it may observe the rest of him rot—Graham knows her comments are true. No matter what Graham might be thinking, he has already managed to outdo himself and cast Rice’s comments as perhaps too complimentary.
It is not surprising to hear someone complain about an unfair process after being accused of wrongdoing. But Trump, the nation’s racist-in-chief, decided that “witch hunt,” his term of choice for the Mueller investigation, needed to be replaced with something far more offensive. So, in a tweet yesterday morning, Trump decided to adopt the word “lynching” to describe how he feels about the impeachment inquiry.
Eager to paint himself as the world’s greatest victim, Trump chose a word loaded with hatred and racism. No one doubts that Trump is unhappy being the focus of constitutionally mandated congressional oversight. But is that the same as the torture and murder of innocent African-Americans in front of cheering spectators?
You would expect Trump’s defenders to argue that Trump was making a valid point but simply used the wrong word. For example, Sen. Tim Scott, who represents South Carolina in the Senate with Graham, told NBC that “I get his absolute rejection of the process. I wouldn’t use the word lynching.” Graham, however, is not your average Trump defender, and so he told reporters that “this is a lynching in every sense.” What? Is he forgetting the main sense of that word? Does he mean Trump is being treated just as badly as people who were murdered? Or is Graham just “a piece of shit”?
Of course, the last option is the only one that makes sense. While Trump’s scandals grow furiously in number and degree, Graham appears to be striving to earn Trump’s admiration as his #1 defender. As if the lynching episode were not enough, last night, Graham resurfaced on Fox News to announce that he plans to introduce a Senate resolution condemning the House’s impeachment inquiry. Graham still faces stiff competition from the likes of Rudy Giuliani and Matt Gaetz, but if he keeps his eye on the prize, Graham just might reach his deranged goal by the time Trump’s house of cards collapses.
Ron Leshnower is a lawyer and the author of several books, including President Trump’s Month