In an effort to galvanize Republicans who are still harping on claims that the 2020 election was stolen, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) declared Monday that he accepted the election outcome and that it was time to move on to future campaigns.
“I accept the results of the election,” Graham said, per The Hill.
“2020 is over for me,” he added, per Newsweek. I’m ready to march on and hopefully take back the House and the Senate in 2022.”
Graham, who certified Joe Biden’s victory in January, made the statement as Trump continued his baseless sour grapes that the voting ― and the polling ― was rigged.
“I think there are a lot of people that feel like bad things happened in the election,” Graham said. ”... But I think President Trump and the Republican Party needs to focus on election reform and the upcoming election.”
Graham also said he supports tighter voter registration requirements, which have been slammed by Democrats as racist.
While Graham signaled to his party that it was best to focus on the future, he admitted that the GOP was still hitched to Trump’s star. Just last week he said the party “can’t grow without Trump” and that “the people who are trying to erase him are going to wind up getting erased.”
Meanwhile, GOP opposition to the election results continued in the swing state of Arizona with a Republican-backed audit of the count. Auditors were, in part, reportedly looking for bamboo in ballots to justify a crackpot theory that thousands of unlawful ballots from Asia had made it into the state’s election boxes.
“I don’t know what the audit is all about in Arizona ... but I’m ready to move on,” Graham said.