Editor-in-Chief of Russian state media calls for Lindsey Graham’s assassination: report

29 May 2023

A recent conversation between United States Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy led the editor-in-chief of Russian state media RT Margarita Simonyan to call for the GOP lawmaker's assassination, Russian Media Monitor founder Julia Davis reports for The Daily Beast.

In March of 2022, NPR reported "Graham's suggestion that Russians should assassinate President Vladimir Putin" received significant backlash from "Republicans and Democrats concerned over the war in Ukraine."

The senator, at the time, said, "The only way this ends is for somebody in Russia to take this guy out. You would be doing your country - and the world - a great service."

Furthermore, according to NPR, when former President Joe Biden's press secretary Jen Psaki was "asked about the remarks during the White House news briefing, she said, "That is not the position of the United States government and certainly not a statement you'd hear come from the mouth of anybody working in this administration."

Per Davis, the senator's most recent comments to Zelenskyy "were spliced in a way that made it seem that the Senator stated that the fact that Russians 'are dying' in the invasion is 'the best money we've ever spent."

The GOP senator added "the Ukrainian resistance reminded him of 'our better selves in America. There was a time in America that we were this way, fighting to the last person, we were going to be free or die."

The Ukrainian president said, "Now you are free—and we will be."

Graham replied, "And the Russians are dying."

Zelenskyy added, "Yes, but they came to our territory. We are not fighting on their territory."

The Daily Beast reports, additionally, Graham told Reuters, "It has been a good investment by the United States to help liberate Ukraine from Russian war criminals... Mr. Medvedev, if you want Russians to stop dying in Ukraine, withdraw. Stop the invasion. Stop the war crimes. The truth is that you and (President Vladimir) Putin could care less about Russian soldiers."

The Daily Beast also notes Simonyan said, "If Lady Graham really said that the money for the killing of Russians is the best money the US ever spent... I hope that in our country, the sons or grandchildren of Sudoplatov are alive, his pupils, or the descendants of his pupils. It's not even hard. We have his address."

Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev, according to The Daily Beast, referred to the senator as "an old fool," adding, "In his beloved America, not only ordinary people are regularly killed, but dirty money is also being spent on killing senators. He should recall the sad fate of Robert Kennedy, Huey Long, Clementa Carlos Pinckney, John Milton Elliott, Wayne Owens and other American politicians."

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova claimed in a statement on Telegram, "Senator [Lindsey] Graham has something to compare with. One of their [US] investments led to World War II and the Holocaust."

State TV host Vladimir Solovyov, according to The Daily Beast, echoed Zakharova adding, "Your dirty American money also fully supported the Nazi regime in Germany! You are a Nazi beast and you're following in the footsteps of your predecessors. I’ll repeat it once again: you will croak, but the Russian people will live forever!"

According to The Daily Beast, Simonyan emphasized, "I have no ill will towards anyone and our religion tells us to forgive, but no one tells us to reward these types of things. When we don’t act in response to these things, it is the same as encouraging them. It causes them to become increasingly more brazen."

The Daily Beast's full report is available at this link (subscription required). NPR's report is here.

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