|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
by WILL FOLKS
***
South Carolina Republican primary voters have a rare opportunity in eleven weeks to fundamentally reset the power paradigm in Washington, D.C. How so? By retiring veteran incumbent U.S. senator Lindsey Graham.
A definitional spawn from the fecundity of the Washington, D.C. swamp, Graham has been in our nation’s capital for the past thirty-one years – the first eight ostensibly representing the Palmetto State’s third congressional district (from 1995-2003) and the last twenty-three years as a U.S. senator.
Over that time, Graham has evolved from a conventional, saber-rattling neoconservative into the leading warmonger in the world – a reckless, dangerous force for costly, unnecessary interventionism all over the world. This year, in fact, Graham openly bragged about how he was coached by Israel and its leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, on how to get U.S. president Donald Trump to pull the trigger on a joint attack against the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Trump took the bait… although he now (thankfully) appears to be searching for an off-ramp in Iran.
***
Graham’s bloodlust for war has never been quenched… and we now learning it may well be unquenchable.
During his latest appearance on one of the Beltway’s insider talk shows earlier this week, Graham urged Trump to send U.S. Marines to seize Iran’s Kharg Island – an oil export hub located approximately 23 miles off the coast of the Islamic nation.
American military assets bombed the island ten days ago in an effort to neutralize its defenses, and Trump – at Graham’s urging – is considering a ground invasion as leverage in the ongoing war.
“We did Iowa Jima, we can do this,” Graham said, referring to a ground invasion of Kharg. “The Marines – my money’s always on the Marines.”
***
? Lindsey Graham: "We did Iwo Jima. We can do this."pic.twitter.com/PMwF6w5Laf
— Brandon Straka #WalkAway (@BrandonStraka) March 22, 2026
***
Except here’s the thing: it isn’t Graham’s money… it’s your money. And we’ve blown through an estimated $8 trillion of it on prior wars in the Middle East (and are currently poised to spend at least $200 billion on the current war). Also, 6,821 Americans died in the battle for Iwo Jima. Another 19,217 were wounded.
Does Graham really believe that level of sacrifice is warranted in this situation?
Of course he does… because forever war (waged on behalf of other nations) is his modus operandi.
“Graham has never met a country he didn’t want to overthrow with other people’s blood, sweat and tears – and with your money,” I wrote in a column three years ago.
Graham’s crass bellicosity and casual contempt for America’s blood and treasure has begun turning even supporters of the Iran War against him.
“Lindsey Graham needs to be removed from the situation room,” South Carolina congresswoman Nancy Mace posted on X. “I don’t want to hear one word from a guy with no kids, desperately sending our sons and daughters into war on the ground in Iran.”
***
RELATED | TRUMP EYES IRAN WAR OFF-RAMP
***
Mace has it half-right. Graham doesn’t just need to be removed from the situation room… he needs to be removed from office.
“Lindsey Graham has one foreign policy: send someone else’s kids to war,” Mace added. “He was wrong about Iraq. He was wrong about Afghanistan. Now he’s wrong about Iran.”
Mace wasn’t alone in her outrage.
“I am deeply upset at the lack of respect for life Senator Lindsey Graham is displaying when talking about our troops,” congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna wrote on X. “He is acting as if they are expendable cattle. This is unacceptable and dark.”
Former congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene called Graham a “psychotic neocon.”
“South Carolina please vote him out!” she pleaded.
It’s not just Graham’s foreign policy which is crippling our nation, though. Longtime members of our audience will recall former U.S. president Barack Obama referred to him as his administration’s “best GOP ally,” which is not surprising considering Graham supported massive deficit spending under Obama – and both of his appointees to the U.S. supreme court. He has also always been America’s weakest-kneed “Republican” on the issue of immigration, as memorialized by the moniker “Grahamnesty.”
***
***
An erstwhile #NeverTrumper, Graham flip-flopped and began supporting the president in late 2017 when it became clear he was about to lose his seat in pro-Trump South Carolina. Having ingratiated himself into Trump’s orbit, Graham now appears to be calling the shots with respect to American foreign policy – a dangerous escalation which has corresponded curiously with Trump’s elevated exposure to the scandals surrounding Jeffrey Epstein, a rumored Israeli intelligence asset.
Graham is facing two announced challengers in his bid for reelection this year. Mark Lynch – a Greer, S.C.-based appliance store owner – was the first to announce. Next came corporate litigator Paul Dans, author of the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025. While Lynch and Dans have sparred, it is important for South Carolina primary voters to recognize what is at stake in this election – namely the trajectory of our nation’s future foreign policy.
Want to keep wasting lives and money we don’t have on wars we have no business fighting? Vote for Graham. Want to spend that money on infrastructure at home, tax cuts and paying down the debt? Vote for Dans or Lynch.
We call our election coverage “Crossroads 2026,” and make no mistake: there is no more impactful a crossroads for our nation to correctly navigate than this one.
It boils down to this: are we actually going to put America first for a change? Or are we going to continue letting foreign nations, the military-industrial complex and their political puppets keep pushing our Republic off a cliff?
And what of South Carolina? Will its voters finally choose a representative who views them as something more than bank accounts to drain – and bodies to be sent to the front lines of a forever war?
We are not endorsing one challenger to Graham over the other. Either Lynch or Dans (both America First candidates) would be infinitely preferable to Graham, but this election is ultimately not about his specific replacement. Instead, it is about putting an end to three decades of bloodthirsty tyranny and multi-trillion dollar betrayals.
Palmetto State voters have a chance this spring to send Lindsey Graham packing once and for all… they cannot afford to waste it. For themselves… or for their country.
***
ABOUT THE AUTHOR…
Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.
***
WANNA SOUND OFF?
Got something you’d like to say in response to one of our articles? Or an issue you’d like to address proactively? We have an open microphone policy! Submit your letter to the editor (or guest column) via email HERE. Got a tip for a story? CLICK HERE. Got a technical question or a glitch to report? CLICK HERE.
15 comments
1. A Republican will win.
2. Every Republican has their nose firmly implanted far up Trump’s butt. As long as that’s the case there will be no difference as long as Trump decides he wants to go to war with Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, Greenland, etc and run up the debt throwing money at the Pentagon and DHS.
3. It doesn’t matter whether it’s Graham or anyone else. If you think otherwise you are hopelessly naive.
Graham is gay like a Super Stupid egotistical Lawyer in downtown Cola
Eventually these types destro themselves
The only way to stop Trump from starting more wars, selling influence, selling pardons, letting foreign criminals buy their way into the US, lining his pockets and the pockets of his family, war profiteering, taking massive gifts from foreign countries (who just love him and want nothing in return LOL), and running up massive deficits is to take away power from Republicans. The only way the Epstein files will be released is if you take away power from Republicans. If you vote for any Republican, you may as well vote for Lindsay. They are all the same. They will kiss the ring, the ass, and the feet of Trump and do exactly what he tells them to do, no matter what it is.
The evidence is clear, even from you, Will. You are still afraid of Trump. Why are you calling out Lindsay, and not the source of the problem, Trump? Captain Bone Spurs and his family are the very best example of a family that is willing to send America’s children into a war if it benefits them, but who will take no risk of their own. No member of the Trump family has ever served in the US Armed Forces. Because they think people who serve are losers and suckers.
Why have you not asked any of these Republicans if they pledge to end Trump’s wars, if they will stand up to Trump, or if they will just parrot GOP BS. And if you did, they would either dodge the question or say they support Trump, because to do otherwise would require them to say they disagree with Trump, and that would result in his attacking them and threatening them.
You forget Biden had the files for 4 years and released none of them.
I have not forgotten anything. What is your point? Because I don’t play the whataboutism game. Whatever happened in the past is irrelevant. There may have been a good reason, there may have been a bad reason, or just no impetus. I don’t know, and I don’t care. Everyone is on board now with releasing those files except Trump and Republicans. So, release the files. Let the chips fall where they may. Bondi, Patel, Jordan, and Comer are obviously covering for someone by hiding these files. I have my suspicions as to who that is, as do the vast majority of Americans. Hell, 75% of Americans believe Trump started the Iran War to distract from those files. I am among them. So I stand by my statement. The only way the Epstein files will ever be released is if you take power from Republicans. Republicans will never release the files.
What Rebecca said ^^^ And no amount of blustering from you changes that fact.
The Epstein case was an open criminal investigation during the Biden administration. Therefore with all open investigations the files could not be released yet. a quick fact checking search could have cleared that up for you.
You also forget that there hasn’t been a Democrat president since Carter that has served in the military.
Again, I have forgotten nothing. You Republicans love your whataboutisms. My point remains the same. None of the other Republican candidates are going to act any differently from Lindsay when it comes to Trump’s wars and Trump’s priorities. They are all rubber stamps. If you want change, you have to take power from Republicans.
Lindsay is not doing anything unusual for Republicans when it comes to Trump. So, why is Will attacking Lindsay over this war and not Trump? Trump is the President, Trump started this War, and Trump’s family is benefiting financially from this war or being paid by the Saudi’s, Qatar, and god knows who else in the Middle East. Trump is a draft dodger, Trump openly disparaged Vietnam POWs, and Trump called the American heroes from the Battle of Belleau Wood losers and suckers. No other President in history has displayed contempt for our service men and women, but Donald Trump has. And no member of Trump’s family is signing up to go to war.
The Trump family has always avoided service. Trump’s grandfather came to the country in 1875, fleeing the draft in his native Bavaria. Since he arrived in this country, not one of his descendants has ever served in the Armed Forces of this Nation.
The Truth is, I do not think any of our Presidents in the last 150 years have glibly sent our men and women to war until now. This is a war of choice. Trump’s choice. The reasons he started this war are very unclear. But they involved a distraction from the Epstein files, bolstering his poll numbers, pressure from Israel, and encouragement from countries that are paying him and/or his family a lot of money. I don’t think what is best for the American People or our troops was even in the top ten reasons.
yeah.. eventually they do destroy themselves–but they destroy us first
Here is another reason Graham is unfit for office: Lindsey Graham described himself in the mid-to-late 1990s (around his 1994–1998 congressional campaigns) as a “Desert Shield/Desert Storm veteran,” even though he never deployed to the Gulf War theater. He served stateside as a JAG officer, supporting the mission—which is honorable. But in military culture, “Desert Storm veteran” has a clear meaning: it refers to those who were actually in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, or Iraq during the war. Using that label when you were never there gives a very different impression than the reality.
This isn’t technically stolen valor under the law, but it’s why many veterans have a problem with it. As a military lawyer, he knew the difference between serving during a war and serving in it. Words matter, especially in the military, where those distinctions represent real experiences, risks, and sacrifices. You don’t have to diminish his service to say this clearly—calling yourself a Desert Storm veteran without ever being in theater crosses a line that shouldn’t be blurred.
Senator Blumenthat ring a bell? Nobody seems to care about him and his stolen valor. There are many other reasons to ditch Lindsey
To defeat Graham in the Republican primary, you need a viable, independent candidate who can think on his own, and who can offer different views forward. Lynch and Dans are nothing more than Trump sycophants and bootlickers.
Strategically it is best to vote against LOG Cabin in the Primary and General election. If we’re stuck with a Dem for six years, a small sacrifice to get rid of Miss Lindsay.
Graham and Scott lost my support when those RINO’s backed this loser Thune over Rick Scott. Memories are long boys….