Lindsey Graham 2.0 is still livin’ large and in charge after brushing off denigrating comments MSNBC‘s Joe Scarborough made about him during today’s “Morning Joe” episode.

The Hill reports on what the show host said about the South Carolina senator:

“Lindsey Graham has a Republican primary in 2020,” Scarborough said. “He was having trouble in the state of South Carolina and recent polls show that among Republican senators he has one of the better approval ratings with the rank and file in the Republican Party in the state of South Carolina.”

“He basically … sold his political soul for, you know, 20 percentage points inside his own Republican Party. I guess, unlike John McCain, Lindsey Graham didn’t have the confidence and the assurance in his voters that he could speak truth to power and still get reelected in his state,” he added.

Watch video of Scarborough’s remarks below:

Graham responded to Scarborough’s insults during a phone interview he did on Brian Kilmeade’s Fox Nation radio program:

SEN. GRAHAM: Well, I remember the 2008 campaign very (inaudible). I remember how poorly he was treated, how he was written off as a war monger, a demented old man. I remember when John McCain said we need to stand up to Assad in Syria. We need to have a no fly zone to protect the Syrian people, how he was treated particularly on that network. All I can say is that I want President Trump to be successful. He beat me. I’ve tried everything I can to help him where it makes sense. I pushback when I think he’s wrong. I like him.

John McCain was my dearest friend in the senate, one of my dearest friends in the world. And the one thing I’ve learned from Senator McCain is that you always put the country ahead of anything else. I’m the senator from South Carolina; people want me to help this president.

And we have disagreements and when we do I try to work through them. So, cable chatter is just cable chatter. And nothing’s going to change my relationship with Senator McCain. He was a big influence on my life, taught me a lot about foreign policy.

And I think President Trump is doing a very, very good job. And I’m certain he’s going to get reelected, I really believe that.

[…]

The one thing I’m not going to worry about is pleasing Joe Scarborough, that’s not on my list. What I am worried about is making sure that we have the right foreign policy during dangerous times.

KILMEADE: Yes. So, I just wanted you to have a shot at defending yourself because they do not give you a chance to do that.

SEN. GRAHAM: Against who? I don’t feel like I need to defend myself against a cable talk show host on MSNBC. I’m a United States senator representing the people of South Carolina who overwhelming support President Trump. John McCain was my dearest friend in the world.

You can listen to the full interview here.

And really, who is Joe Scarborough of all people to be taking the moral high ground on so-called political hypocrisy and standing shoulder to shoulder with Trump? Let’s take a trip down memory lane to 2016, courtesy of Gregory Price at Newsbusters:

As the host of MSNBC’s Morning Joe, Scarborough and co-host/paramour Mika Brzezinski did more than anyone in the media, including Fox News, to give Donald Trump an open and friendly platform to advance his presidential campaign during the 2016 GOP primary. Scarborough even bragged about how he would visit Trump to offer debate advice and once penned a Washington Post op-ed, claiming that conservatives who opposed Trump sounded like the “arrogant and unmoored left-wing pundits let loose on MSNBC during the Bush years.”

So assuming for purposes of discussion that Scarborough is right about Graham “selling his political soul” because it benefited him to be seen as friendly to Trump, what does that make the 2016 version of Joe Scarborough?

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—Based in North Carolina, Sister Toldjah is a former liberal and a 15+ year veteran of blogging with an emphasis on media bias, social issues, and the culture wars. Read her Red State archives here. Connect with her on Twitter.–