Biden and Graham Reportedly Schemed On How ‘To Go to War For Saudi Arabia’
Democrats and Republicans can’t agree on much. But when it comes to sending Americans to war, the two parties are often willing to set aside their differences. In his new book War, investigative journalist Bob Woodward reports that Sen. Lindsey Graham (R–S.C.) had a shockingly blunt conversation with President Joe Biden about how to make it happen.
Graham reportedly said that only Biden could secure a U.S.-Saudi defense treaty, because it would “take a Democratic president to convince Democrats to vote to go to war for Saudi Arabia” during a meeting last year. “Let’s do it,” Biden responded, according to Woodward.
The conversation took place in the context of Biden’s attempts to negotiate a “megadeal” between the United States, Saudi Arabia, and Israel. Graham had a publicly reported meeting with Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman in support of the deal in April 2023. The idea, which Republican vice presidential candidate Sen. J.D. Vance (R–Ohio) also supports, was to create a permanent, U.S.-led security alliance in the Middle East.
At the time, the Biden administration was downplaying the level of commitment it was willing to offer Saudi Arabia. Anonymous officials kept claiming that the proposed agreement would fall short of a full commitment to go to war. As a trial balloon, the administration signed a vaguely worded defense agreement with Saudi ally Bahrain without asking Congress, and insisted that it “does not cross the threshold of a treaty.”
But behind closed doors, the administration and its allies were reportedly very straightforward about what they wanted to commit Americans to do. Graham told Biden at the White House that bin Salman is “willing to do [the deal] because he gets under our nuclear umbrella and he doesn’t have to worry about building a bunch of bombs,” according to Woodward.
The book does not say exactly when the meeting took place, except that it was several months before the October 7, 2023, attacks on Israel. In the same conversation, Graham reportedly said that a Republican administration wouldn’t be able to secure such a deal.
“Democrats wouldn’t vote for it if [former president Donald] Trump introduced it because they hate [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu] and they hate Trump,” Graham told Biden, according to the book. “Republicans would vote for the defense agreement with Saudi Arabia if Israel encouraged us to. We can get 45 Republican votes.”
Biden assured Graham that he could get the rest of the votes from the Democratic caucus, Woodward reports.
Graham then reportedly conceded that Trump should get “his fair share of the credit” for any U.S.-Saudi deal because of the Abraham Accords, a
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