Sen. Darline Graham (R-SC), who is her party's nominee for another term in the US Senate, fled from a reporter on Thursday after being asked about President Donald Trump's proposed $5,000 checks for citizens.
"After presiding over a pro forma Senate session, Sen. Darline Graham says $5,000 checks proposed by Trump are a “good idea” but otherwise declines to answer questions and says she has to get to the airport," Semafor's Burgess Everett reported on X on Thursday.
This is not the first time Graham has fled from uncomfortable questions. In August, when asked about Trump's repeated Big Lie that he actually won the 2020 presidential election, Graham simply said she would support his proposed voter suppression legislation before bolting.
"MS NOW’s Mychael Schnell asked the appointed senator about this during a Monday press conference," MS NOW's Steve Benen reported at the time. "She apparently didn’t want to talk about it."
Benen added that she was then asked “Senator, you just mentioned that you agree with your brother on everything except for one matter, that being illegal immigration, you’d go farther than him on that. That being said, I’m curious, do you agree with him about the 2020 election, that Joe Biden was certified the winner of that election, was lawfully elected, and that you would’ve voted to certify the election, as your brother did?”
He reported that Graham replied, “I think our election system is broken,” which Benen characterized as "pushing a line that was both outrageously false and irrelevant to the underlying question. She then quickly shifted to emphasizing her support for the voter suppression package the White House has spent much of the year pushing."
Benen followed up by concluding, "You won’t commit to having certified the results of the 2020 election?” Benen reported that Graham handled this by ignoring the query, reporting that she "refused to engage and moved on."
Graham's most controversial refusal to answer a question occurred during her Senate primary debate with Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC), during which she demurred from answering a question on America's relationship with its longtime ally, Taiwan.
“Are Taiwan and the south China Sea national security issues for the United States, and if so, why or how?” a host asked.
Graham replied, “I'm just going to be honest here. I'm not on national security, that I'm not that informed on national security. So—but I do support the military.”
After that controversial reply, Democratic strategist James Carville publicly commented that "she’s too stupid" to be in the Senate when it comes to issues like international dialogue. He continued that Democrats would be well advised to “hammer that home” if Graham appears before a live audience for another debate.
“She’s does good work with handicapped people but she’s a dumb as concrete,” Carville argued.
