GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham on Friday condemned Hitler after Tucker Carlson praised neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes, and hailed the Republican Party for “killing all the right people.”
“I just want to make it really clear: I’m in the ‘Hitler sucks’ wing of the Republican Party,” Graham said before the Republican Jewish Coalition Leadership Summit in Las Vegas, Nevada. “What is this Hitler shit? I don’t know. Anyway, so. Here’s what I do know: You can sit in a basement with weird people and say weird things — it’s a free country, right? But if you ever run for office as a Republican and you embrace this weird shit, we’re gonna beat your brains out.”
Graham’s comments come as the Republican Party has played defense following Carlson’s interview with Fuentes. Carlson, the former Fox News host, spoke to Fuentes on his podcast last week, apologizing for his past criticism of the antisemite and hailing Fuentes as being “more talented” than him. The interview caused a firestorm within the GOP after the influential Heritage Foundation defended the conversation. Republican lawmakers, such as Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Mitch McConnell (R-KY) slammed Carlson for the interview and his comments.
Graham also defended the Trump administration for engaging in “killing”:
“I feel good about where we’re going as a nation,” the South Carolina senator said. “We’re killing all the right people and we’re cutting your taxes,” he said to laughs.
“We’ve run out of bombs. We didn’t run out of bombs in World War II,” he added.
