Lindsey Graham told Trump over the summer 'you f---ed your presidency up,' book claims. Trump hung up.


Lawyers for former President Donald Trump labored until the end to overturn President Biden's win, and that included making their case to two Republican senators, Lindsey Graham (S.C.) and Mike Lee (Utah), in the days before Congress certified the results Jan. 6, according to Peril, the new book by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa. Graham and Lee listened carefully to the pitches from Rudy Giuliani and John Eastman, respectively, and even followed up with their own research. And ultimately, the book details, they were not at all impressed.
Giuliani on Jan. 2 presented Graham with a computer whiz who said his statistical analysis showed Biden losing, Woodward and Costa report. Graham said he needed "some names" and "evidence," so Giuliani returned two days later with several memos and affidavits claiming fraud.
Graham sent Giuliani's memos to his chief Judiciary Committee counsel Lee Holmes, who "found the sloppiness, the overbearing tone of certainty, and the inconsistencies disqualifying" and "reported to Graham that the data in the memos were a concoction, with a bullying tone and eighth grade writing," the authors write. "Third grade," Graham reportedly shot back. "I can get an affidavit tomorrow saying the world is flat."
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Two days later, on Jan. 6, pro-Trump rioters stormed the Capitol. After the riot, Graham told Trump from the Senate floor, "Count me out. Enough is enough. I've tried to be helpful." Graham "has since tacked back, visiting Trump at Mar-a-Lago, speaking to him regularly," and saying the GOP needs him, The Washington Post reports. "Still, he has continued to deliver criticism directly to Trump, according to the book. In a phone call this summer, he bemoaned Trump's volatility and focus on voter fraud, telling the former president, 'You f---ed your presidency up.' Trump abruptly hung up on him." A Graham spokesman declined the Post's request for comment.
Lee, who CNN calls "one of the Senate's top Republican constitutional authorities," was equally unimpressed with Eastman's six-point plan for Vice President Mike Pence to hand Trump the election. "Lee's head was spinning," the authors write. "No such procedure existed in the Constitution, any law, or past practice. Eastman had apparently drawn it out of thin air." Eastman spoke at the Jan. 6 rally before the riot, and a week later, California's Chapman College announced his immediate retirement as law professor. You can read his Pence memo via CNN.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.
-
Apple bows to Trump administration pressure over ICE tracking apps
In the Spotlight It’s the latest company to capitulate to Trump’s demands
-
Can TrumpRx really lower drug prices?
Today’s Big Question Pfizer’s deal with Trump sent drugmaker stocks higher
-
‘Every argument has a rational, emotional, and rhetorical component’
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Russia: already at war with Europe?
Talking Point As Kremlin begins ‘cranking up attacks’ on Ukraine’s European allies, questions about future action remain unanswered
-
Museum head ousted after Trump sword gift denial
Speed Read Todd Arrington, who led the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum, denied the Trump administration a sword from the collection as a gift for King Charles
-
Trump declares ‘armed conflict’ with drug cartels
speed read This provides a legal justification for recent lethal military strikes on three alleged drug trafficking boats
-
Supreme Court rules for Fed’s Cook in Trump feud
Speed Read Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook can remain in her role following Trump’s attempts to oust her
-
‘This isn’t just semantics’
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Miami Freedom Tower’s MAGA library squeeze
THE EXPLAINER Plans to place Donald Trump’s presidential library next to an iconic symbol of Florida’s Cuban immigrant community has South Florida divided
-
Judge rules Trump illegally targeted Gaza protesters
Speed Read The Trump administration’s push to arrest and deport international students for supporting Palestine is deemed illegal
-
Trump: US cities should be military ‘training grounds’
Speed Read In a hastily assembled summit, Trump said he wants the military to fight the ‘enemy within’ the US