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- GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham on Friday said that President-elect Joe Biden should have his Cabinet nominees confirmed by the US Senate, according to The Hill.
- “The vice president deserves a Cabinet,” he said. “I will give him my input about who I could vote for as Secretary of State [and] Attorney General.”
- But Graham added that he would not support certain nominees if “they’re unqualified or too extreme.”
- Graham, an ally of President Donald Trump, was recently reelected to a fourth term in the Senate.
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Sen. Lindsey Graham on Friday said that President-elect Joe Biden “deserves” to have his Cabinet nominees confirmed by the US Senate, according to The Hill.
In a Zoom call with reporters, the South Carolina Republican expressed his intention to support Biden on filling key administration posts, but stated that he would oppose candidates whom he deemed as unfit to serve in government.
“When it comes to finding common ground, I will do that,” he said. “The vice president deserves a Cabinet. I will give him my input about who I could vote for as Secretary of State, Attorney General … There may be some people that I just can’t vote for because I think they’re unqualified or too extreme.”
In the call, Graham also emphasized his opposition to progressive priorities like the Green New Deal and Medicare for All, while saying that he aimed for bipartisanship. He was reelected to a fourth term in the Senate on November 3 after fending off a spirited challenge from former South Carolina Democratic Party chairman Jaime Harrison.
“I ran on two things, that I will be a reliable vote to stop the most radical agenda being pushed by [House Speaker] Nancy Pelosi and others in the history of the United States,” he said. “I also talked about openly in my campaign at all the debates about [how] I have reached across the aisle and will continue to do so.”
In the call, Graham didn't declare the race for any candidate and spoke about the Biden administration in a hypothetical sense. However, Insider and Decision Desk HQ called Pennsylvania, and thus the presidency, for Biden on Friday morning, and on Saturday, the race was called for Biden by virtually every major media organization.
Graham said that the former vice president would have to figure out how to navigate divided government, if that is the reality in January 2021.
"If Biden wins, he's got to make a decision about what kind of president he wants to be," he said. "Does he want to be more like Obama who rammed through [the Congress] Obamacare and a stimulus package that was very partisan or does he want to sit down with people like [GOP Senate Majority Leader] Mitch McConnell and others and me and see if he can find some common ground like infrastructure?"
If the GOP can avoid losses in two Georgia Senate runoff elections in January, they would retain control of the upper chamber. However, if Democrats Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff can win both of their respective races in Georgia, Democrats would control the chamber with a 51st vote from Vice President-elect Kamala Harris.