Jill Bidenis reconsidering her friendship with South Carolina Sen.Lindsey Graham.
During a Monday appearanceon CNN’sNew Day, the wife of former Vice PresidentJoe Bidenimplied that she no longer considered Graham a friend after the Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee supported investigations into the Bidens’ sonHunteramid PresidentDonald Trump‘s Ukraine scandal.
After CNN’s John Berman questioned the former second lady about Graham and asked whether she counted him as a friend, Biden replied, “We did, yes.”
“Well, you know, Lindsey — I don’t know what happened to Lindsey. And we used to be great friends and friends with [late GOP Sen.]John McCain,” she added. “I mean we traveled together with the [Senate] Foreign Relations Committee. We’ve had dinner. You know, and now he’s changed.”
Upon further prodding, Biden said that Graham’s actions had been “hurtful.”
“You know, it’s hard when you, I don’t know, consider somebody a friend and then they’ve said so many things, so many negative things,” she told Berman. “And it’s — that’s been a little hurtful.”
Trump’s impeachment trial is centered around allegations he abused his power and obstructed Congressin connection with the Ukraine scandal.
After a months-long investigation, Democrats in the House of Representatives said they found that that the president withheld support of Ukraine’s government to pressure leaders there to investigate both Vice President Biden and his son Hunter — who had been on the board of a Ukrainian energy company — based on unfounded claims of corruption.
Despite the evidence from the House investigation, including testimony from government officials, Trump has insisted he did nothing wrong.
Republicans have mounted a series of shifting defenses, including saying that it was in the national interest for Trump to ask Ukraine to investigate the Bidens.
Graham has repeatedly defended his decision to support an investigation into the Bidens as well.
In November,he tweeted: “I love Joe Biden as a person but we are not going to give a pass to what is obviously a conflict of interest.”
“I believe Hunter Biden’s association on the Burisma board doesn’t pass the smell test,” he added. “If a Republican was in the same position, they’d certainly be investigated!”
That same day Graham went on Fox News Radio to discuss Joe’s “anger” over his actions, saying that the issue has “nothing to do with friendship,” according toUSA Today.
“My friendship with Joe Biden, if he can’t withstand me doing my job, it’s not the friendship I thought we had,” Graham said at the time.
“As much as I like Joe Biden, if it were Lindsey Graham or Mike Pence or Donald Trump, you would be looking,” he said, according toa tweet from C-SPAN.
Graham has also suggested that Hunter be brought in as a witness for Trump’s impeachment trial, according to CNN.
“Hunter has done nothing wrong,” the former second lady said on Monday onNew Day. “Why would Hunter be called? Donald Trump should be before that committee.”
source: people.com
