Lindsey Graham calls for Vladimir Putin’s assassination

A sitting US Senator thought it would be a good idea to specifically call for the assassination of Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday evening.

During an appearance on the primetime show by Fox News host Sean Hannity, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) stated that the only way to end the escalating crisis caused by Russia’s violent invasion of Ukraine is for his political allies to kill Putin.

“What’s happened is that Putin is looking at Biden, he’s sizing him up, he thinks he can get away with it, and he’s going to keep going and going and going and nobody in the west is going to stop him,” Graham exclaimed.

The South Carolina legislature then referred to both the treason of Julius Ceaser and the failed German attempt to kill Adolf Hitler in 1944.

“How does this end? Someone in Russia has to put themselves at the top,” Graham told Hannity, who did also contemplated an assassination attempt on Putin the night before. “Is there a Brutus in Russia? Is there a more successful Colonel Stauffenberg in the Russian military? This can only end, my friend, if someone in Russia takes out this guy! You would be doing your country a great service and a great service to the world.”

Remarkably, Graham’s eyebrow-raising remarks came as Fox News rolled footage of the fire at a huge Ukrainian nuclear power plant after being shelled by a Russian armored column. The director of the station, fortunately, later said that the facility’s radiation safety had been ensured and there was currently no threat of nuclear catastrophe.

Shortly after appearing on Hannity’s show, Graham decided to tweet the same calls for someone in Russia to kill Putin, again claiming it was the best way to end the war.

“The only people who can fix this are the Russians,” the pro-Trump senator said added in a subsequent tweet. “Easier said than done. If you don’t want to live in darkness for the rest of your life, isolated from the rest of the world in abject poverty and live in darkness, you have to put yourself at the forefront.

Graham’s comments quickly drew criticism across the political spectrum. For News anchor Laura Ingraham, while noting that she “likes Lindsey Graham,” said Thursday night that “it seems really dangerous and stupid” for the senator to tweet a death threat.

A Twitter spokesman has yet to respond as The Daily Beast asked if Graham’s tweets offend them the platform’s rules against violent threats and incitement to physical harm.