If you were wondering how the GOP is dealing with the firestorm surrounding the “Send her back” chant which broke out at a North Carolina rally on Wednesday evening as Donald Trump viciously maligned Ilhan Omar with a series of lies, the answer is “it depends”.
But for his part, Lindsey Graham is sticking with Trump. Graham’s obsequiousness to the White House is an oddity even among some conservatives, who cannot understand how a man who once told CNN that “the best way to make America great again is to tell Donald Trump to go to hell”, has metamorphosed into the congressional equivalent of a far-right fringe blogger.
Responding to questions about the “Send her back” debacle, Graham suggested that if Ilhan Omar was wearing a MAGA hat (as opposed to, you know, the hijab), she could have lunch at the White House.
You think we’re joking. Well, we’re not. That is literally what Graham said. Here is the clip:
(If the video does not load, please refresh your page)
Got that? Here is the actual, verbatim quote:
If you’re a Somali refugee wearing a MAGA hat, he doesn’t wanna send you back. You can probably have dinner at the White House.
It’s absurd enough that it would be laughable if the subject weren’t so serious.
To be fair, Graham did offer some conciliatory remarks and he looked exhausted. Here’s another clip:
As you can see, Lindsey became a bit perturbed when CNN’s Manu Raju conjured the memory of John McCain’s famous “no ma’am” moment in 2008. “[John] took a different – different tack”, Graham said.
He certainly did. And Trump has certainly gone out of his way to denigrate McCain at every possible opportunity, even when unprompted and even after McCain succumbed to brain cancer.
“As an immigrant who served on active duty, I get to support or criticize Trump just like any other American”, Rep. Ted Liu said of Graham’s MAGA hat remarks. “The president and the GOP don’t get to send US citizens back because they criticize Trump”.
This is what it’s come to. Democratic lawmakers are being forced to remind American citizens that Republicans cannot deport them if they don’t wear MAGA hats.
Read more: ‘Send Her Back’: The Lowest Point For Domestic Politics In Modern American History
RE US/Turkey Relations
If the US places sanctions on Turkey as well as canceling Turkey as a customer for the Lockheed F35 there are a couple of issues to consider
Lockheed as all large airframers give off-set work to countries who pucchase their product
Presently Lockheed has such a program with Turkey
So, if Turkey is disenfranchised as a F35 customer what will become of the F35 Lockheed/Turkey off set program?
No doubt concerns would arise that Turkey might sabotage the F35 parts it produces
So if the off-set program is cancelled who will manufacturer those parts, how long will it take to get the replacement manufacturer up to speed, how will this affect the Lockheed F35 delivery dates?
If that is not enough bear in mind that at an US airbase in Turkey, Inchirlik to be specific, the US stores a portion of its Nuc’s in Europe
The US also stores Nuc’s in the Netherlands, two locations in Germany, one location in Italy and one location in Sicily (part of Italy)
So what will happen to those Nuc’s?
Could those Nuc’s be stolen by a third party? Might Turkey hold those Nuc’s as hostage?
As a closing data point, Francis Gary Powers departed a Turkish airbase on his ill fated U2 reconnaissance flight over Russia