Lindsey Graham Says He’s Proposing Bill to Spend $400 Million on Trump’s Ballroom

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) responded to the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner by not only joining President Donald Trump’s calls to move forward with building a White House ballroom, but by proposing legislation to spend hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer money on it.

The annual confab of politicos and journalists erupted in chaos Saturday evening when a gunman fired several shots. Secret Service whisked the president and First Lady Melania Trump out of the room, and all of Trump’s Cabinet members were safely evacuated as well.

The suspect, identified as 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen of California, was apprehended and is in custody. During a first appearance in federal court on Monday, he was informed he is facing three charges: an attempt to carry out a political assassination, transporting a firearm across state lines, and discharging a firearm during a crime of violence. He is facing a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Trump held a press conference in the White House briefing room nearly two hours after the shooting occurred, and took questions from the gathered reporters who had been in attendance at the dinner, still in their gowns and tuxes.

The president has also repeatedly made reference to his ballroom project in the aftermath of the shooting, despite the fact that the WHCD is a private event organized by a private organization, the White House Correspondents’ Association, and would be under neither obligation nor expectation to hold the event on any government property. (And, for the record, while it has long been traditional to invite the president and numerous other government officials, none of them are under any enforceable requirement to attend.)

Graham added his voice to those using the WHCD shooting to push for a ballroom, in remarks he made during a press conference on Monday.

Graham said that Trump had told him, “We need the ballroom, not just for me, but for future presidents,” adding that it would have been better if Trump could have just walked out of his bedroom, through the White House, and directly into a ballroom for last night’s event.

“That’s what needs to happen,” the senator continued, to keep safe events where you have “one thousand, two thousand people gathered in today’s environment.”

“The sooner we get the ballroom built, the more hardened it is, the better it is for the country,” said Graham, pushing back on critics who have derided it as a “vanity project” and arguing it was essential for the president’s security.

He added that he hoped other senators would support a bill that he and Sen. Katie Britt (R-AL) would be sponsoring, “that would authorize $400 million to be spent to secure — to build the presidential ballroom, underneath there will be a lot of military stuff, there will be a Secret Service annex,” and other “infrastructure that is national security-centric.”

Graham explained that they had gotten an estimate of $332 million but were already asking for $400 million “because I think it’s going to take more.”

Private donations could still be used, he said, “but I think they should be used for buying china and stuff like that.”

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) also said he would be putting forward a bill supporting moving forward with the ballroom, although his proposal still anticipated building it with private funds.

Watch the full video at C-SPAN.

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