Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) reportedly told President Joe Biden following the 2020 election that he only called out the president's son, Hunter, for his controversial business dealings to please supporters of former President Donald Trump.
Graham had previously requested that a special counsel be named to investigate whether Hunter Biden's business dealings in Ukraine and China resulted in any crimes.
The South Carolina senator had also publicly supported Trump's claims of a stolen election.
And while The New York Times reported that Graham called President Biden shortly after the election to explain why he had attacked Hunter, Graham's office told The Hill that it was the president who initiated the conversation.
Three sources familiar with the conversation said that Graham had also told Biden that attacks against Hunter had not appeased many South Carolina Trump supporters, according to The Times.
President Biden said in December that he was particularly disturbed by Graham's criticisms of his son because of their long-lasting friendship dating back to when the president was a senator.
"Lindsey's been a personal disappointment because I was a personal friend of his," he said at the time.
The president, who was reported to have seen Graham's attacks on his family as unforgivable, said that he would continue to work with any Republican.
Graham once said in an interview that the president was "as good a man as God ever created." But after President Biden said he was disappointed in Graham's attack on his son, the senator said that "It's not personal and it breaks my heart that this happened, but I'm hell-bent on making sure we live in a country where everybody gets looked at when there's a reason."
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