“TRAITOR!” Lindsey Graham Relentlessly Booed and Jeered ON Trump Rally Stage

OPINION:  This article contains commentary which may reflect the author’s opinion

The upstate South Carolina town of Pickens was the site of the July 1 Trump MAGA rally, kicking off the Independence Day weekend. Crowds upward of 30,000 (local officials place the number at closer to 50,000) crowded down Main Street in the small southern town, as South Carolinians braved the heat, even camping overnight to hear former President and 2024 candidate Donald Trump.

Pickens County, SC is noted for the highest number of Trump voters in the state, with its neighbor Oconee County, SC coming in second place. In 2020 nearly 75% of the vote in Pickens County went to Trump.

Trump spoke Saturday as part of his 2024 GOP presidential primary campaign, addressing South Carolina itself while mixing in some current events such as this week’s major Supreme Court decisions. Other speakers included South Carolina Republican Governor Henry McMaster and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green (R-Ga.), who both received cheers from the crowd.

But another South Carolina politician did not receive those cheers from the rally participants; Sen. Lindsey Graham was booed, jeered, and insulted from the moment he took the stage until he walked off it, and was later laughed at and booed again during Donald Trump‘s speech when Trump referred to Graham.

Despite Trump having asked Graham to lead his campaign in the Palmetto State, the conservatives in attendance were not happy when Graham showed up — and made sure to let him know it.

“Just calm down for a second. I think you’ll like this….I was born in this county,” said Graham as his introduction became drowned out in taunts and jeers from the crowd. “I live 15 miles down the road. This is a place where people pay the taxes, fight the wars, and tell you what they believe.” Graham himself is from Oconee County next door to Pickens.

Graham continued to praise Trump, and every time Trump’s name was mentioned, cheers arose, but it did not stop Trump supporters from shouting out insults like “traitor” and booing him continuously, Mediate reports.

“I helped him get three judges on the Supreme Court there. Overruled Roe v Wade. I was on the front line of the fight,” Graham shouted from the stage to the restless crowd. “And it would not have happened without President Trump,” Graham declared loudly, causing cheers to erupt amond the booing.

Graham is currently a key ally of Trump in and outside the White House, but his past criticisms of the conservative leader have caused some of his supporters to develop a strong dislike for the senator. Moreover, conservative firebrands such as Tucker Carlson have routinely denounced Graham for his support of foreign wars and his stance on immigration, Mediate notes.

During Trump’s speech, he brought up Biden’s recent double gaffe referring to Ukraine as Iraq. Trump name checked President Xi Jinping of China and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un as examples of world leaders who are at “the top of their game,” pointing out that the current president appears to not even be in the game. “Stating twice this week, as an example, that Russia is losing the war to Iraq. Twice,” said Trump.

And Trump continued his roast, pointing our Graham;s mistakes but also claiming, “Don’t worry, Im going to straighten him out.”

“Now, you know, you can make mistakes on occasion,” said Trump. He then pointed into the crowd and said, “Even Lindsey down here, Senator Lindsey Graham, we love Senator Graham.” The crowd began to boo Graham, and Trump said in a joking voice, “We’re gonna, we’re gonna love him. We’re gonna love him.”

“I know, it’s half and half,” he said as the crowd continued its booing. He continued roasting Graham as the audience’s booing mixed with laughing.

“But when I need some of those liberal votes, he’s always there to help me get them, okay? We got some pretty liberal people. But he’s good. He’s good. We know the good ones. We know the bad ones, too. We got some real bad ones. But even he makes mistakes on occasion,” Trump said.

It seems Trump took the bull by the horns by having Graham speak, and was ready to address conservatives’ dislike of Graham’s RINO behavior while building him up as part of the TRUMP team.

South Carolina former Lt. Governor Andre Bauer also spoke before Trump at Saturday’s rally, declaring about the MAGA candidate, “This state picks presidents. When we come together and show this kind of support for an individual, it speaks volumes about the eventual nomineee.

While Trump was speaking in the blistering heat, some of the crowd clustered under shade trees and under awnings, wher boxes of free water bottles were stacked for use by the crowd. His voice could be heard throught the town, however, on massive speakers and he could be seen on screens placed away from the main stage.

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