Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina on Sunday demanded that President Joe Biden “give Israel the bombs they need” in a tirade in which he said the US made the “right decision” by dropping nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Graham appeared on Meet the Press with NBC’s Kristen Welker and the discussion became heated as she continued to press Republicans on why Israel couldn’t be more precise in its efforts to destroy Hamas.
This week, the Biden administration halted a shipment of bombs to Israel as the president warned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to stage a ground invasion of Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinian civilians have taken refuge.
“So when we as a nation faced destruction after Pearl Harbor, fighting the Germans and the Japanese, we decided to end the war by bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki with nuclear weapons,” Graham said. “That was the right decision.”
“Give Israel the bombs they need to end the war they cannot afford to lose, and work with them to minimize casualties,” he added.
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina’s appearance Sunday on Meet the Press became heated when host Kristen Welker pressed him about why Israel couldn’t be more precise in its efforts to end Hamas.
A boy watches as Palestinians prepare to flee Rafah after Israeli forces launched a ground and air operation in the eastern part of the southern Gaza city. President Joe Biden halted a shipment of bombs to Israel over concerns about Rafah operations
Welker then intervened.
She pointed out that “senior military officials would argue that there has been so much technology since the bombs fell that for that very reason Israel and other developed countries can be more precise.”
The NBC anchor also pointed out that in 1982 Republican President Ronald Reagan stopped the guns sent to Israel as the US investigated whether Israel violated the law and other agreements in using cluster bombs near Palestinian civilian populations.
Welker told Graham, “Well, historians would say, ‘Why is it OK for Reagan to do it and not President Biden?’” — a question that startled the Republican senator.
“Well, why is it okay? Can I say this?’ Graham said, when Welker interrupted. Why is it okay for America to drop two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end their existential threat war? Why did we think it was okay to do that? I thought it was okay.”
“For Israel: do what you have to do to survive as a Jewish state,” he said.
Welker again pointed out that senior military officials have said technology has changed.
The rubble left behind after the United States bombed the Japanese city of Hiroshima in 1945, bringing an abrupt end to World War II. Kristen Welker pointed out that modern technology should allow Israel to be more precise in eradicating Hamas in Gaza
“Yes, those military officials you’re talking about are full of nonsense,” Graham snapped, as Welker talked over him.
Graham blasted America’s ultra-left party – especially progressive Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who had just appeared on the program – for being largely concerned about the fate of Palestinian civilians in the wake of Hamas’ brutal attack on Israeli citizens on October 7.
In his segment, Sanders told Welker, “Israel has … started war against the entire Palestinian people, and the results have been absolutely catastrophic.”
‘My problem is not with the weapons Israel uses. My problem is with the tactics Hamas is using,” Graham said, noting how the terrorist group Hamas has deliberately embedded itself in Palestinian civilian ranks.
“And the idea that America wouldn’t send a dime in aid, echoed by a United States Senator, while all the Jews are trying to be murdered by radical Islamic groups, tells us where we are as a nation,” the South Carolina lawmaker said. “The Republican Party unapologetically supports Israel.”
The paused shipment of bombs is part of an earlier aid package for Israel and not the new $95 million additional package that Congress approved and Biden signed.