Update:
As the Twitter account Defiant L's has pointed out, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), not only called on someone in Russia to assassinate Vladimir Putin, but had tweeted in December 2016 that "Every responsible nation should condemn the assassination of the Russian Ambassador to Turkey."
— Defiant L’s (@DefiantLs) March 4, 2022
Original:
On Thursday night, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) made a rather bold suggestion on what to do about Russian President Vladimir Putin: assassinate him. As a result, "Lindsey" has been trending on Twitter.
During his appearance on Fox News' "Hannity," Graham offered to answer the question of "how does this end?" His suggestion was for "somebody in Russia has to step up to the plate. Is there a Brutus in Russia? Is there a more successful Colonel Stauffenberg in the Russian military," Graham also asked, referring to a German colonel who was part of a plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler in 1944 and subject of the film "Valkyrie."
The senator even appeared to use explicit language as he went on to say "the only way this sh*t ends my friend is for somebody in Russia to take this guy out. You'd be doing your country a great service and the world a great service."
— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) March 4, 2022
Graham himself tweeted the clip from his official Twitter account, and tweeted out those same sentiments in a thread.
The only people who can fix this are the Russian people.
— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) March 4, 2022
Easy to say, hard to do.
Unless you want to live in darkness for the rest of your life, be isolated from the rest of the world in abject poverty, and live in darkness you need to step up to the plate.
Host Sean Hannity had teased Sen. Graham's segment on the show as discussing how Putin should be tried for war crimes.
Such a suggestion drew strong reactions from Twitter from all sides of the aisle, with some even calling on Graham to resign.
Psychotic. Resign. Warmongering freak.
— Jordan Schachtel @ dossier.substack.com (@JordanSchachtel) March 4, 2022
Been warning about Crazy America Last Lindsey for years.
— The Columbia Bugle ???? (@ColumbiaBugle) March 4, 2022
On behalf of America, I disavow you.
— Cernovich (@Cernovich) March 4, 2022
Probably not the most responsible thing for a U.S. senator to tweet.
— Molly Jong-Fast (@MollyJongFast) March 4, 2022
Reckless to call for the assassination of a country's leader.
— Yossi Gestetner (@YossiGestetner) March 4, 2022
Resign. Now
— Jack Posobiec ???? (@JackPosobiec) March 4, 2022
Neocons gonna neocon
— Tyler Amick (@MickTy96) March 4, 2022
Another tweet from Graham, earlier on Thursday, was his resolution condemning Putin.
Just introduced resolution condemning the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, & Russian military commanders for committing flagrant acts of aggression & atrocities rising to the level of war crimes against humanity & crimes against the Ukrainian people.https://t.co/XD4kziVWYx pic.twitter.com/2qpQBM0JOi
— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) March 3, 2022
Graham had also appeared with Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-IN) in a press conference on Wednesday, after she introduced a resolution that passed the U.S. House of Representatives that day by a vote of 426-3.