Since Sen. Lindsey Graham was at the Senate Judiciary Committee meeting attended last week by Sens. Mike Lee and Thom Tillis, both of whom were unmasked and subsequently tested positive for COVID-19, you’d think he’d want to know his own status. But nope. Graham very much does not want to be tested—at least not with the results becoming public.
Graham’s opponent, Jaime Harrison, is pushing for testing for everyone involved in the debate scheduled for Oct. 9. “We need real leadership in this pandemic,” Harrison tweeted Thursday afternoon. “The debate moderators and I have agreed to take a COVID test prior to debating. I've scheduled my test, and I am calling on Sen. Graham to do the same.” Graham was not on board, all but calling Harrison “uppity” in response.
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“Mr. Harrison is demanding special treatment,” Graham responded in a statement. “South Carolinians do not appreciate Harrison putting himself above others.”
“Putting himself above others,” in this context, means “calling on someone known to have been in a room with multiple people who tested positive for COVID-19 to be tested before spending an extended period on a stage with him.” The subtext, of course, is that Harrison is doing that while Black.
Graham claimed to be following his doctor’s advice in not being tested, and said he’d be at the debate.
Harrison’s response was brief and to the point:
It’s easy enough to be tested if you’re a United States senator. For some reason, Graham won’t do it, won’t set an example for South Carolinians to be tested when they’ve had contact with coronavirus-positive people, won’t set an example for South Carolinians to be tested if they’ll be sharing space with others for a sustained, maskless period of time. For some reason.
Hmmm. It’s not hard to think of a few possibilities why that might be. It’s up to Graham to prove otherwise.