Lindsey Graham donates to Trump’s legal fund and calls Philadelphia’s election ‘crooked as a snake’

Senator Lindsey Graham, fresh off the heels of securing his own reelection in South Carolina, announced he was donating $500,000 to legal efforts made by the Trump campaign to challenge election procedures in the remaining swing states. 

The Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman and Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) are just a few of the notable Republican politicians falling in line behind President Donald Trump and his baseless claims that the election has been rigged against him.

Graham shared news of the donation while appearing on Hannity, slamming the elections in Philadelphia as being ‘crooked as a snake.’  

‘I’m here tonight to stand with President Trump,’ Graham said to Sean Hannity. ‘He stood with me, he’s the reason we’re going to have a Senate majority … He helped Senate Republicans. We’re going to pick up House seats because of the campaign that President Trump won.’

The Republican senator from South Carolina voiced his distrust of most elections in liberal cities, praising efforts in Arizona to count all votes. It was then that he referred to the elections in Philadelphia as being ‘crooked as a snake.’ 

Following Graham’s appearance on Hannity, Senator Cruz came on to echo similar sentiments. Both claimed that partisan election observers in Philadelphia were being denied access to observe ballot counts.   

In Pennsylvania, disputes over poll watchers were concentrated largely in Philadelphia, where the Trump campaign complained its observers could not get close enough to see whether mail-in ballot envelopes had signatures along with eligible voters’ names and addresses. Trump’s initial complaint does differ to what both senators were claiming was transpiring in the city. 

Ballots without signatures could be challenged or disqualified, and city officials have said state election law allows poll watchers only to observe the work and not audit it.

Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar defended the process as open.

‘In Pennsylvania, every candidate and every political party is allowed to have an authorized representative in the room observing the process,’ Boockvar said in an interview with CNN. ‘Some jurisdictions including Philly are also livestreaming, so you can literally watch their counting process from anywhere in the world. It’s very transparent.’

On Thursday, a state judge ordered Philadelphia officials to allow party and candidate observers to move closer to election workers processing mail-in ballots. A spokesperson for the Philadelphia board of elections said barriers were shifted in response to the order while the city appealed it.

Later, a federal court in Philadelphia denied a Trump campaign bid to stop the vote count over the access issues, urging the two sides to forge an agreement. U.S. District Judge Paul S. Diamond suggested each party be allowed 60 observers inside the convention center where ballots were being tallied.

Voting advocates noted the restrictions applied to both Republican and Democratic poll watchers.

Trump, who held a 67,500 vote lead early Wednesday, prematurely declared victory in Pennsylvania, which holds 20 electoral college votes. 

But by Thursday evening Trump’s lead had slipped to about 26,319 votes, according to CNN as mail in ballots from across the state continued to be counted, including some that were being counted by hand. The late counted ballots were overwhelming in Biden’s favor. 

Officials are hoping to have the actual results on Friday.