Two weeks ago Sen. Lindsey Graham went from a White House meeting with Donald Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to the floor of the United States Senate to hastily block a bipartisan resolution formally recognizing Turkey's genocide against Armenians just over 100 years ago.
Axios has the background on how exactly that happened. Short version: Trump's staff asked him to block it. Long version: Because it would make Erdogan, currently engaging in a sweep of Kurdish areas of Syria after President Crimes ordered a hasty, scurrying withdrawal of the U.S. troops that had been protecting their erstwhile Kurdish allies, mad.
That's it. No big underlying principle. Erdogan was in town, and because Erdogan was in town and in a bad mood, Team Trump and Graham thought it would be bad form to upset him by recognizing a past Turkish atrocity. The last time Erdogan was in town, his security staff attacked both American protesters and law enforcement officials. Heaven knows what his thugs would do if they faced an actual slight from the Senate.
Any theory that this was a temporary effort to avoid upsetting Erdogan while he was in town—the "poor timing" that Lindsey Graham is claiming—fell apart last week when the resolution was re-introduced and, sure enough, the White House asked Republican Sen. David Perdue to block it this time around. Evidentially it is still "poor timing"; evidentially it will be "poor timing" for as long as Donald has taken a liking to the thuggish leader.
Still, it's uncanny how Erdogan seems to be getting whatever he wants out of this White House. Including, of course, the ability to direct U.S. troops. What are we getting out of this in exchange again?