In an uncommon move by the Senate Ethics Committee, the panel admonished Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Thursday for using interviews at the Capitol to solicit campaign donations.
Fewer than a dozen senators have been admonished since 2002, the last one being Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) in 2018 and before that, former Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) in 2012.
The letter from Chair Chris Coons (D-Del.) and Vice Chair James Lankford (R-Okla.) cites a Nov. 30, 2022 Fox News appearance Graham made from the Russell Senate Office Building. In the interview, Graham “directly solicited campaign contributions” for Georgia Senate candidate Herschel Walker on five separate occasions, according to the letter.
Coons and Lankford wrote that this was a “repeat violation, citing an Oct. 14, 2020 hallway interview at another Senate office building in which Graham solicited donations to his own reelection campaign. That matter too was investigated by the Ethics Committee but dismissed in March, 2021, according to the panel leaders.
In the letter sent to Graham, Coons and Lankford wrote: “The public must feel confident that Members use public resources only for official actions in the best interests of the United States, not for partisan political activity…Your actions failed to uphold that standard, resulting in harm to the public trust and confidence in the United States Senate. You are hereby admonished.”
There are no material consequences surrounding the admonishment; it is only noteworthy for being historically unusual.
In response, Graham said in a statement, “It was a mistake. I take responsibility. I will try to do better in the future.”
