‘He’s there when you need him’: Trump defends Lindsey Graham at South Carolina rally

Donald Trump defended political ally Lindsey Graham after a crowd of supporters at a campaign rally booed the South Carolina senator in his home state Saturday.

Graham was met with resounding boos when he spoke before Trump at the event in Pickens, S.C. But when Trump took the stage later in the afternoon, the former president urged his supporters to accept Graham as an asset in his bid for reelection in 2024.

“We’re going to love him,” Trump said of Graham. “I know it's half and half, but when I need some of those liberal votes, he’s always there to help me get them. We’ve got some pretty liberal people, but he’s good. We know the good ones.”

Trump said he would have to “work on these people” later in the speech after supporters continued to boo at the mention of Graham’s name. Trump then lauded Graham for endorsing him for president early on after he declared his 2024 candidacy, promising supporters that he would get Graham “straightened up” and offering to campaign for him in South Carolina.

“He’s there when you need him,” Trump added.

Graham has a spotty record of loyalty to Trump, calling him a “nutjob,” a “loser” and a “race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot” during Trump’s 2016 campaign for president. Graham went on to become a fierce ally of Trump during his presidency, although his support for Trump faltered again when he criticized participants in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection.

Recently, however, Graham has aligned himself with Trump once more, endorsing his 2024 presidential candidacy and betting former Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) $20 that Trump would beat President Joe Biden in the general election. Last month, Graham said Trump was "stronger today politically than he was before" after the former president was indicted on charges relating to the storage of classified documents retained from his time as president in his Mar-a-Lago estate.

Graham waited several minutes for the crowd to stop booing him after he appeared at Saturday's rally, sarcastically thanking the crowd and urging them to "calm down for a second" so he could voice his support for Trump.

“It took a while to get there folks, but let me tell you what happened,” Graham said Saturday. “I’ve come to like President Trump, and he likes himself, and we’ve got that in common. And I’m going to help him become president of the United States.”