Graham praises CNN for debate: 'You're not fact checkers, you let him talk'

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) praised CNN's Dana Bash for allowing former President Trump to talk during the debate last week while answering a question about whether Trump will accept the election results.

Graham said he was comfortable with Trump saying he would accept the results only if it was a "fair and legal and good election" during the CNN presidential debate last week. In his response on CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday, Graham reacted to Trump's remarks and praised Bash for the handling of the debate.

"You know, y'all did a good job. You let him talk. You're not fact checkers; you let him talk," he told Bash.

CNN's moderators, Bash and Jake Tapper, were criticized following the debate for failing to fact check Trump and President Biden's claims in real-time during the performance. CNN defended their moderators in a statement to The Hill, saying that they "are very proud of Jake and Dana. Our job was to make sure candidates were heard so voters can make informed decisions and we are pleased we were able to do that.”

Graham said he was not worried about whether Trump would accept the results of the election.

"What are you supposed to say? 'Yeah, I'll accept that no matter if I thought I was cheated?' I'm not worried about him accepting the results of the election. I'm worried about between now and November, does Iran get a nuclear weapon 'cause they think Joe Biden's so compromised, he's not gonna do anything about it," he said.

He also took aim at Democrats for calling Trump a felon after he was convicted on 34 counts of falsifying business records in New York last month and warned of possible retribution.

"The Democrats keep calling President Trump a felon. Well, be careful what you wish for. I expect there will be investigations of Biden's criminality at the border. If I'm Mayorkas, I should be worried that somebody's going to come after you because you've abused the parole statute," he said.

"So, this country's gonna have a resetting here and using the Biden standard of glorifying political prosecutions, Pandora's box has been opened. Whether he steps down or not accountability is coming to him," he added later on.

When Bash noted that Graham was warning of "retribution," Graham responded, "Yeah. I warned that the Pandora's box opened by the Democrats is going to be applied here."