South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham on Sunday demanded that President Joe Biden “give Israel the bombs it needs” in a rant in which he said the United States made the “right decision” by dropping nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. .
Graham appeared on NBC’s Meet the Press with Kristen Welker and became heated when she continued to press the Republican on why Israel couldn’t be more precise in its efforts to destroy Hamas.
This week, the Biden administration halted a shipment of bombs to Israel, as the president warned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to stage a ground invasion in Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinian civilians have sought refuge.
“So when we faced destruction as a nation after Pearl Harbor, fighting the Germans and the Japanese, we decided to end the war by bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki with nuclear weapons,” Graham said. “That was the right decision.”
“Give Israel the bombs it needs to end the war it cannot afford to lose and work with them to minimize casualties,” he added.
South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham’s appearance Sunday on Meet the Press turned heated when host Kristen Welker pressed him on why Israel couldn’t be more precise in its efforts to take down Hamas.
A boy watches as Palestinians prepare to flee Rafah after Israeli forces launched a ground and air operation in the eastern part of the southern Gaza city. President Joe Biden halted bomb shipment to Israel over concerns about operations in Rafah
Then Welker intervened.
He noted that “senior military officials would argue that there has been so much technology since those bombs were dropped that for that very reason Israel and other developed countries can be more accurate.”
The NBC host also noted that in 1982, Republican President Ronald Reagan suspended weapons being sent to Israel while the United States investigated whether Israel violated the law and other agreements by using cluster bombs near Palestinian civilian populations.
Welker told Graham, “Well, historians would say, ‘Why is it okay for Reagan to do it and not President Biden?'” a question that infuriated the Republican senator.
‘Well, why is it okay? Well, can I say this?’ Graham said, when Welker interrupted. ‘Why is it okay for the United States to drop two nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end its existential threat of war? Why was it okay for us to do that? I thought it was okay.’
“To Israel, do what you have to do to survive as a Jewish state,” he said.
Welker, again, noted that senior military officials have said the technology has changed.
The rubble left after the United States bombed the Japanese city of Hiroshima in 1945, bringing an abrupt end to World War II. Kristen Welker noted that modern technology should allow Israel to be more precise in eradicating Hamas from Gaza.
“Yeah, those military officers you’re talking about are full of crap,” Graham snapped, as Welker spoke over him.
Graham criticized the American far-left – especially progressive Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who had just appeared on the show – for being largely concerned with the plight of Palestinian civilians following Hamas’ brutal attack on Israeli civilians on 7 October.
In his segment, Durnig Sanders told Welker: “Israel has… gone to war against the entire Palestinian people, and the results have been absolutely catastrophic.”
‘My problem is not the weapons that Israel is using. My problem is with the tactics that Hamas is using,” Graham said, highlighting how the Hamas terrorist group has deliberately integrated itself into Palestinian civilian ranks.
“And the idea that the United States would not send a penny of aid, echoed by a US senator, when all the Jews are trying to be murdered by radical Islamic groups, tells us where we are as a nation,” said the South Carolina legislator. “The Republican Party stands with Israel unapologetically.”
The paused bomb shipment is part of an earlier aid package for Israel and not the new $95 million supplement that Congress approved and Biden signed.
