Jill Biden Says Family Friendship with Lindsey Graham Is over after ‘Hurtful’ Ukraine Comments
Jill Biden said Monday that her family “used to be great friends” with Senator Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.), but that things had “changed” after Graham’s comments about the Biden family’s dealings in Ukraine amid President Trump’s impeachment.
Jill Biden, appearing on CNN’s New Day ahead of the Iowa caucuses, interjected after being asked a question about Graham, “whom I think you count as a friend,” John Berman added.
“We did, yes,” she said, before elaborating.
“I don’t know what happened to Lindsey. And we used to be great friends and friends with John McCain,” she added. “I mean we traveled together with the Foreign Relations Committee. We’ve had dinner. You know, and now he’s changed.”
Jill Biden added that “it’s hard” to still consider Graham a friend after his “hurtful” comments in regard to Joe and Hunter Biden’s dealings in Ukraine.
“It’s hard when you, I don’t know, consider somebody a friend and then they’ve said so many things, so many negative things,” she stated.
"We used to be great friends… And now he's changed," says Jill Biden, wife of Joe Biden, about Sen. Lindsey Graham's stance on the impeachment trial. "It's hard when you consider somebody a friend and they've said so many negative things. That's been a little hurtful." pic.twitter.com/tjR1JsFrDJ
— New Day (@NewDay) February 3, 2020
Graham, in his role as Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, opened a probe in November into allegations that Biden used his position as the Obama White House point man for Ukraine policy to push for the firing of a government prosecutor in order to shield Burisma from investigation. While the prosecutor, Victor Shokin, was widely considered to be corrupt, President Trump and a number of Republicans have speculated that Biden pushed for his firing to protect his son Hunter, who sat on Burisma’s board at the time.
“I’m doing this because somebody needs to do it,” Graham told host Brian Kilmeade on Fox News Radio when asked about the investigation he is conducting. “We’re not going to allow a system in America where only one side gets looked at.”
Biden told CNN that he was “embarrassed” by Graham’s actions, but the South Carolina Republican defended the move.
“My friendship with Joe Biden — if it can’t withstand me doing my job, then it’s not the friendship I thought,” Graham told Kilmeade.
Ahead of the vote for additional witnesses and documents in President Trump’s impeachment trial, Graham told reporters on January 24 that “I don’t want to call Hunter Biden. I don’t want to call Joe Biden.”
“I want someone to look at this when this is done,” Graham said. Days later, Graham changed his tune after it appeared that witnesses were likely to be called.
