Drew Anger | News Getty Images | Getty Images US Senator Lindsey Graham believes former President Donald Trump has a “pretty good chance” of winning the 2024 US presidential election, in what he said could be one of the “greatest political comebacks in American history”. Speaking to CNBC on Saturday, Graham – a South Carolina Republican and close Trump ally – said he had informed the former president he had “no chance” of winning the election in 2020, but added that 2024 was within the realm of possibility. of. “I’m telling you literally what I’m telling him,” Graham told CNBC’s Steve Sedgwick at the Ambrosetti Forum in Italy. “If you lose again, the story of who you are and what you’ve done changes dramatically,” he said. “If you come back, it will be one of the greatest political comebacks in American history. And if you take another four years, you can do big things.”
The ability to do “big things”
Graham, who is currently facing calls to testify in a criminal investigation related to Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election, said Trump will now be able to position himself as a president of hope and action as the political and economic climate darkens under President Joe Biden. . Here’s what Trump might say, Graham said. “Okay, you’ve lived four years of this. You have a chance to start over,” he said. “Remember me? I may not be your cup of tea, but when I was president, our borders were secure, we had the lowest illegal crossings in 40 years. I did it,” he continued. “When I was president, I stood up to China and they listened to me. When I was president, we had the strongest military since Ronald Reagan. When I was president, I destroyed the caliphate. When I was president, we had conservative judges, not liberal judges. He has a story to tell Graham said. Ultimately, however, Graham acknowledged that it may take more than policy commitments for Trump to win back the favor of American voters. “His problem is personal,” she said. “His policies have stood the test of time. But has he exhausted the American people in terms of his personality? … Time will tell.”
The Trump investigation continues
Graham’s comments come as Trump is under investigation for possible violations of laws related to espionage and obstruction of justice, specifically regarding the handling of classified White House files he moved to his Mar-a-Lago residence. Florida. The senator criticized the FBI investigation, accusing the intelligence agency of double standards in Trump’s treatment of Hillary Clinton, who was the subject of a separate investigation into her use of a private email server while she was secretary of state. Trump’s critics argue that the two cases are not comparable. Graham reiterated Saturday that there would be “riots in the streets” if Trump were impeached, but separately condemned the violence seen during the Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol. Last Thursday, a federal judge denied Graham’s latest attempt to challenge a subpoena for his testimony before a Georgia grand jury investigating possible criminal interference in the 2020 election by Trump and his allies. But the judge limited the scope of the subpoena by ordering that Graham could not be questioned about phone calls he made to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and his staff in the weeks after the November 2020 election between Trump and Biden. After Graham’s repeated attempts to avoid testifying on the grounds that his position as a congressman gives him immunity under the “speech or debate” clause of the US Constitution.
