Lindsey Graham Urges Russians to Kill Putin

Lawmakers from both parties condemn Republican senator's remarks
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 4, 2022 10:28 AM CST
Lindsey Graham Urges Russians to Kill Putin
Sen. Lindsey Graham talks on the phone Thursday, March 3, 2022, in the East Room of the White House.   (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

Sen. Lindsey Graham called for the assassination of Vladimir Putin Thursday night in a tweet so widely condemned that Reps. Ilhan Omar and Marjorie Taylor Greene were in agreement. "Is there a Brutus in Russia? Is there a more successful Colonel Stauffenberg in the Russian military? The only way this ends is for somebody in Russia to take this guy out," the Republican senator wrote, referring to the assassination of Julius Caesar and the attempted assassination of Hitler. "You would be doing your country—and the world—a great service." Greene described Graham's remarks as "unhinged" and another Republican, Sen. Ted Cruz, said that while Russia should be targeted with sanctions and the Ukrainians should receive military aid, calling for the assassination of a foreign head of state is "an exceptionally bad idea."

Omar, a Democratic "Squad" member, described the remarks as unhelpful. "I really wish our members of Congress would cool it and regulate their remarks as the administration works to avoid WWlll," she tweeted. Graham also called for Putin's assassination on Fox Thursday night. He was attacked by Russian officials including Anatoly Antonov, Russia's ambassador to the US, who called the remarks "outrageous" and "criminal," NBC reports. Graham fired back at the ambassador in another Fox interview Friday morning, saying Antonov is supporting a war criminal.

Graham has long been a fierce Putin critic, and another of his proposals won wider support this week, CBS reports. He was among several members of Congress who introduced a resolution formally condemning Putin's government for "committing flagrant acts of aggression and other atrocities rising to the level of crimes against humanity and war crimes." In a statement, he compared Putin to Hitler in the 1930s. "One reason history repeats itself is that we fail to learn from the mistakes of the past," he said. (More Russia-Ukraine war stories.)

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