Lindsey Graham Lashes Out at Soleimani Airstrike Skeptics on Twitter: ‘Third Grader Watching the News’ Could See ‘Imminent Threat’

Staunch Iran hawk and Trump supporter Sen. Lindsey Graham continued his defense of President Donald Trump’s decision to kill Iranian Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani, lashing out as skeptics of the airstrike in a Twitter thread on Friday night.

Graham has become the president’s most vocal acolyte for the killing of the Iranian terrorist leader, having pointedly criticized fellow Republican Senators Mike Lee and Rand Paul as “overreacting” and “empowering the enemy” for questioning the administration’s justification for the attack.

In a four-part Twitter thread, Graham once again zeroed in on critics of the strike and intimated that to express doubts about the administration’s reasoning was tantamount to questioning the integrity of CIA Director Gina Haspel and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General Mark Milley.

To those Members of Congress who question the assessment the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and CIA Director who forcefully made the case there was an imminent threat to U.S. personnel in Iraq and throughout the region coming from Quds Force commander Soleimani:

— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) January 11, 2020

Do you believe the Chairman and CIA Director are incompetent?

Lying?

I’m beyond disgusted by the suggestion the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and CIA Director got it wrong when it comes to the actions of General Soleimani.

— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) January 11, 2020

With all due respect, a third grader just watching the news could figure out our people were in grave danger in Iraq.

A politician living in the safety of Washington has a much different definition of “imminent threat” than those Americans stationed in Iraq.

— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) January 11, 2020

In this instance, Democrat’s unending efforts to trash President Trump are instead trashing the professional assessment of the CIA Director and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs.

It’s beyond disgusting.

— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) January 11, 2020

Despite Graham’s certainty that the strike was justified, a growing number of questions have arisen about the Trump administration’s claims, as the White House and its surrogates — most notable among them, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo — have offered up several different and, at times, seemingly contradictory explanations forthe decision to kill Soleimani while he was in Iraq. The administration’s claims have attracted even more skepticism after Trump off-handedly claimed at his Ohio rally on Thursday that one US embassy, which he later upped to four embassies on Friday, faced an “imminent” threat from a Soleimani plot—information that numerous Congressional officials say was not in the classified briefing about the attack.

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