Sen. Lindsey Graham Tells Democrat, “I’ll Be Your Wingman”

U.S. Senators Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), who have been working together to introduce and pass legislation to impose sanctions on Russia in response to its invasion of Ukraine, are now also suggesting imposing new sanctions on Iran.

After Israel launched missile strikes on Iran on Friday, and as Iran continued to retaliate, Graham and Blumenthal appeared together on CBS News’s Face the Nation on Sunday.

As seen below, when Blumenthal said: “I think we ought to strengthen sanctions against Iran, which is a non-kinetic, a peaceful means of exerting pressure,” Graham responded: “I will be your wingman — we will write it right here on television.”

Graham then looked into the camera and said: “China, if you’re listening, stop buying Russian oil and stop helping the Iranians. You would make the world a safer place if you would stop.”

When Face the Nation host Margaret Brennan noted that China buys Russian oil “because it’s cheap,” Graham responded, “Well they should pay a price for propping up Putin’s war machine. We should crush their economy.”

Graham’s comments are receiving mixed reviews on X. One MAGA supporter replied derisively “Meet the new John McCain” while others responded with snarkier comments including “who’s going to tell graham his daddy won’t like that anti Russia talk” and “Did Graham grow a spine recently? Sanctions on Russia and now Iran?”

Another suggested that “these guys talk a good game, but in the case of graham, he’ll ultimately follow trump’s lead and trump will ultimately follow putin’s lead.”

Note: Graham and Blumenthal’s Russia sanctions bill would, according to Graham, “put Russia on a trade island, slapping 500% tariffs on any country that buys Moscow’s energy products. The consequences of its barbaric invasion must be made real to those that prop it up. If China or India stopped buying cheap oil, Mr. Putin’s war machine would grind to a halt.”