Lindsey Graham Offers to Rein in pro-Trump 2020 Election Deniers If Bernie Sanders Will Stop ‘Defund the Police’ Democrats

Progressive Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) debated this week as part of The Senate Project, which was streamed exclusively on Fox Nation.

The two longtime colleagues, both known for their enjoyment of public speaking, discussed a variety of topics ranging from the bipartisan gun control bill, entitlement spending, gas prices, and foreign policy.

Fox News will air the full debate Saturday, June 18th at 7 p.m. ET.

The debate, which dropped on Fox Nation during the Jan. 6 Committee hearings Monday, included a lively debate about former Presidnet Donald Trump’s allegations that the 2020 election was stolen.

“We have a former President whose name is Donald Trump. Goes around the country telling people, ‘Hey, I won the election. In fact, I probably want it by a landslide but they – they stole it. They took it away from me,’” Sanders said.

“Now, that happens to be what we call a big lie. And yet many of the Republicans that Senator Graham are asking you to vote for are maintaining that. What does that mean? It goes beyond Trump. It goes beyond the 2020 election. It means what they are saying is the entire system: ‘You can’t trust anybody,’” Sanders charged, adding:

And if you can’t trust the election results, then what is the obvious alternative? ‘We need a strong man.’ All right. Conservatives went to, I think it’s Hungary, to meet with Mr Orbán, who runs an authoritarian type society. So, the struggle we are facing is not just that Lindsey and I disagree on this or that issue, which we do. It is the future of American Democracy and whether we move to authoritarianism based on, among other things, a very big lie.

Moderator Bret Baier jumped in, asking Graham, “Quickly, can you address that –”

“Trump lost the election,” Sanders interjected.

“Can you address that, Senator? I mean, can you say definitively the election was not stolen?” Baier asked Graham.

“Yeah, I voted to certify the election. There were some mail balloting shenang — chicanery out there. But no, no, I voted to certify the election. President Biden is the President. And Trump –”

“He won the election?” Sanders interrupted, pushing Graham.

“Yeah,” Graham said.

“OK. But what about all of the candidates out there who are trying to say that he didn’t? Your Republican candidates you want people to vote for?” Asked Sanders.

“Well, I, you know what about the people saying defund the police? You talk to them, I talk to that crowd,” Graham said, offering to find some middle ground.

“But your crowd is a lot larger than my crowd,” said Sanders, appearing to agree with Graham’s offer.

Earlier in the debate, Sanders distanced himself from some of his progressive colleagues who have called for “defunding the police.”

“Just one thing, as a matter of fact, I never called for the defunding of the police,” said Sanders, who cited his time as mayor of Burlington, and said he “worked very well with our police department.”

“We need community-based policing that reflects the people in those communities, that we have to fight racism in every way that we can. But I’ve never called for defunding the police,” concluded Sanders on the topic.

Watch the full clip above from Fox Nation

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