On Thursday, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) called for the assassination of Russian President Vladimir Putin, issuing a grim warning that the Russian people “need to step up to the plate” or risk living in “darkness for the rest of your life.”
“Is there a Brutus in Russia? Is there a more successful Colonel Stauffenberg in the Russian military? The only way this ends is for somebody in Russia to take this guy out. You would be doing your country – and the world – a great service,” Graham tweeted on Thursday.
“The only people who can fix this are the Russian people,” he continued in a separate tweet. “Easy to say, hard to do. Unless you want to live in darkness for the rest of your life, be isolated from the rest of the world in abject poverty, and live in darkness you need to step up to the plate.”
Graham first made the comments during an appearance on Fox News where he told host Sean Hannity that “somebody in Russia” needed to “take this guy out,” referring to Putin.
Earlier this week, Ukraine-born Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-IN) demanded President Joe Biden and top Democrats stop funding Putin’s invasion of Ukraine through the purchase of thousands of barrels of Russian oil every day.
“Unfortunately, we have too many people that … hopefully they change their mind that the biggest threat is the climate change right now because we have much bigger problems right now and we have lack of common sense,” Spartz said during an appearance on Fox News.
“We have a lack of common sense in Europe, but we also have lack of common sense in our country, and it’s created instability, bloodshed and a lot of problems. So we need to be smarter. And I think, you know, this president needs to understand if we want to tip the scale and make President Putin listen to us, the most effective way to do it is stop financing his war.”
A group of U.S. senators from both sides of the aisle also introduced legislation on Thursday banning imports of Russian oil.
The Banning Russian Energy Imports Act, which is sponsored by 18 senators including Democrat Joe Manchin and Republican Lisa Murkowski, seeks to punish President Putin for invading Ukraine.
“I don’t believe this country should be importing anything from Russia,” said Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT), according to Reuters. “It will send even a bigger message that the United States is in this with Ukrainians for the long haul.”
