Lindsey Graham, operating for re-election, says his reference to ‘the superior old days of segregation’ was sarcastic.

Senator Lindsey Graham, who is preventing off an significantly steep re-election obstacle in South Carolina, drew criticism on Wednesday right after he invoked the “good previous days of segregation” at the Supreme Courtroom confirmation listening to of Judge Amy Coney Barrett.

Asking the decide about various Supreme Courtroom precedents as he opened the 3rd working day of hearings, Mr. Graham, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, appeared to be hoping to generate dwelling the stage that there was no more time any meaningful push in The usa to obstacle the 1954 Brown v. Board of Training determination, which held that university segregation was unconstitutional.

“One of the good reasons you can say with self-assurance that you think Brown v. Board of Education is a super precedent is you are not conscious of any effort to go again to the fantastic aged days of segregation via legislative physique. Is that suitable?” he asked. Decide Barrett answered in the affirmative.

Mr. Graham later on claimed that he was staying sarcastic when he made use of the expression, but for the 2nd time in a 7 days he identified himself on the defensive for remarks about race. Mr. Graham, who has advanced into 1 of President Trump’s most significant allies from 1 of his hardest critics, and who reversed himself on the propriety of trying to verify a Supreme Court docket justice in an election calendar year now that accomplishing so gains Republicans, has been tied in recent polls of the condition.

His remark drew a swift rebuke from his Democratic rival, Jaime Harrison, who shared a clip of Mr. Graham’s remark on his Twitter account, sending it bouncing across social media.

“The good previous times for who, Senator?” questioned Mr. Harrison, who is Black. “It’s 2020, not 1920. Act like it.”

In the course of a split in the listening to, Mr. Graham explained he had been misunderstood and rebuked his opponent for the criticism. His feedback had been “dripping with sarcasm,” Mr. Graham mentioned, referring to the era of segregation as “dark times.”

“It blows my brain that any rational individual could imagine that about me,” he additional.

The comment arrived just a few days after Mr. Graham was roundly criticized for expressing through a campaign forum in South Carolina that Black people today “can go anywhere in this state” as extended as they ended up “conservative, not liberal.”

He experienced been chatting about his friendship with the state’s other Republican senator, Tim Scott, who is a Black man.