In July 2015, after Donald Trump attacked Senator John McCain’s war record and insulted him as a non-hero for having been captured, his Senate colleague from South Carolina Lindsey Graham—a presidential candidate and one of the most respected voices on foreign policy on Capitol Hill—called Trump a “jackass” and declared that he “shouldn’t be commander in chief.” The following day, during a rally in South Carolina, Trump claimed that Graham had called him three or four years earlier, “begging” Trump to put in a good word for him with the Fox News morning show Fox & Friends. Trump called Graham a “lightweight” and an “idiot.” In October of that year, when Graham was interviewed on CNN’s New Day, he said of Trump, “He’s the most unprepared person in the entire field to be commander in chief, and over time I think that will matter. Americans better wake up.” In December 2015, Graham, again on CNN, called Trump a “race-baiting, xenophobic religious bigot.” As the primary season wore on, Graham’s warnings grew more desperate. He said on MSNBC, “I think Donald Trump is a con man. I think he would destroy the Republican Party.”