The Republican Senator for South Carolina Lindsey Graham has accused “the squad” of left-wing freshman Democrats of being “a bunch of communists” in an interview with “Fox and Friends” on Monday.
Graham’s comments come as a defence of President Trumps comments on Twitter on Sunday telling newly-elected Democratic representatives Alexandra Orcasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts to “go back” and fix the countries they come from.
Only one member of the group was born outside of the US however; lhan Omar’s family came from Somalia as refugees in 1997.
A close ally of the president, Graham accused Ilhan Omar of anti-semitism for her opposition to Israel and lebelled the group as “socialists”, “anti-American, and “a bunch of communists”.
“We all know AOC and this crowd are a bunch of communists they hate Israel, they hate our own country. Calling guards along our border, Border Patrol agent concentration camp guards,” Graham said.
However, the senator did advise Trump to “aim higher” in his criticism and that the squad were American citizens.
He went on to say that the shift to left would “destroy” the Democratic Party.
The strong accusations of communism from the senator are consistent with a string of “red scare” style statements from the Trump administration.
In October 2018 the White House’s Council of Economic Advisors released ‘The Opportunity Costs of Socialism’ outlining apparent poor economic performance of socialist economies.
President Trump himself declared that “America will never be a socialist country” at his State of the Union Address in February.
These publications are seemingly in response to the emerging progressive movement in the US, influenced by self-declared socialist and 2020 presidential hopeful Senator Bernie Sanders, who was in attendance during Trumps 2019 State of the Union Address.