Lindsey Graham has warned that the Republican Party cannot win back control of the Senate without Donald Trump.
His prediction came after the ex-president declared war on the GOP’s most senior senator, Mitch McConnell, and branded him a “dour, sullen, unsmiling political hack.”
Mr Trump’s mauling of the Minority Leader came after Mr McConnell blamed him for provoking the Capitol riot, just minutes after acquitting him at his Senate trial.
Now Mr Graham, the Republican senator from South Carolina, has urged his party to stick with Mr Trump ahead of the 2022 election cycle.
“I know Trump can be a handful, but he is the most dominant figure in the Republican Party,” Mr Graham said on Fox News.
“Trump is the most consequential Republican in the party,” said Mr Graham.
And he added that if Mr McConnell did not see that, then “he’s missing a lot.”
A total of 57 senators voted to convict Mr Trump at his Senate impeachment trial, but the number was not high enough to reach the two-thirds supermajority needed.
The Republican Party hopes to take control of the Democratic-controlled House and Senate in 2022 and the White House in 2024.
And Mr Graham said he was concerned how the feud would undermine his party’s attempts to regain power.
“They’re now at each other’s throat. I’m more worried about 2022 than I’ve ever been. I don’t want to eat our own,” he said.
And he added: ”We don’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of taking back the majority without Donald Trump,” he said.
“If you don’t get that, you’re just not looking.”
