Lindsey Graham to China: ‘If you jump on the Putin train, you’re dumber than dirt’

Sen. Lindsey Graham on Sunday said China would be making a colossal blunder if it decides to provide lethal aid to Russia for its war with Ukraine.

"If you jump on the Putin train, you’re dumber than dirt," the South Carolina Republican said of China in an interview with Martha Raddatz on ABC's "This Week."

"It would be like buying a ticket on the Titanic after you saw the movie."

Speaking from the Munich Security Conference in Germany, Graham urged the Biden administration to declare Russia a state sponsor of terrorism, which would enable the U.S. to penalize nations that provide assistance to Russia in its war with Ukraine, which began a year ago.

Graham cited Vice President Kamala Harris' statement that Russia is committing crimes against humanity as support for the idea that Russia should be declared a state sponsor of terrorism. “Their actions are an assault on our common values, an attack on our common humanity,” she said in Munich on Saturday.

Graham called Harris' statement "correct."

The United States now lists four nations as state sponsors of terrorism: Cuba, Iran, North Korea and Syria.

Graham also said it was crucial for the U.S. to train Ukrainian pilots to fly F-16 fighters to give Ukraine the capability to win the war, even if that might seem like a form of escalation to President Vladimir Putin and Russia.

"Don't worry about provoking Putin," he said. "Worry about beating him, and I've never been more optimistic about winning this war in Ukraine than I am right now. I see solidarity across the aisle in America and across the seas.

As he has in the past, the South Carolina senator took an expansive view of the ongoing war, seeing it as more than just a regional conflict.

"What's at stake here is the rule of law, human decency and world order," Graham said.