Trump ally Bannon slams SC’s Lindsey Graham for Ukraine support

U.S. Sen. Lindsay Graham, R-S.C., is facing backlash over his vow to support the war in Ukraine by a top former adviser to former President Donald Trump, as Graham continues to be ostracized by MAGA crowds.

Steve Bannon, a former chief strategist to Trump, says Graham’s decision to challenge U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, for speaking out against additional funding for Ukraine is “poisonous.”

“Lindsey Graham is a poisonous serpent that is allowed to get near President Trump, spreading his poison by operatives who are NOT America first,” Bannon said on the social media platform Getter.

Bannon’s comments follows a Fox News interview Sunday, where Graham took issue at Vance’s unwillingness to continue providing billions of American dollars to support Ukraine’s war effort against Russia.

“I challenge J.D. Vance to go to Ukraine and get a briefing from the Ukrainian military and talk to the Ukrainian people. Then tell me what you think. Quit talking about things you don’t know anything about until you go.”

In an opinion piece in The New York Times, Vance said the U.S. isn’t in a position to offer Ukraine sufficient help in its contest with Russia.

“Ukraine’s challenge is not the G.O.P.; it’s math,” Vance wrote. “Ukraine needs more soldiers than it can field, even with draconian conscription policies. And it needs more material than the United States can provide.

On Saturday, the U.S. House of Representatives approved more than $60 billion in aid to Ukraine after assistance for it failed in Congress for months, spurred by political infighting.

On Fox News Sunday, Graham said protecting Ukraine’s interest relates to the importance of restraining China from encroaching upon Taiwan.

“If you want American military members to stay out of the fight with Russia, help Ukraine,” Graham said during the Fox News interview. “If they go into a North Atlantic Treaty Organization nation, we’re in a fight. If you pull the plug on Ukraine, there goes Taiwan because China is watching to see what we do.”