- GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham campaigned in Ohio for the Senate candidate JD Vance.
- During a speech at a Republican Party dinner in Lima, Ohio, Graham riled up the crowd.
LIMA, Ohio — Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina was met with roaring laughter from a crowd of Republican voters Tuesday evening when he suggested that if Republican Rep. Jim Jordan ascended to chair of the House Judiciary Committee, it would result in a raft of suicides.
Graham, campaigning in Ohio for the GOP Senate candidate JD Vance, addressed the room at a dinner hosted by the local Republican Party in Lima, a western Ohio city that Jordan has long represented in Congress. Also in attendance were Republican Gov. Mike DeWine, Ohio GOP Chair Bob Paduchik, and a handful of other top Republican officials in the state.
Vance, a former venture capitalist and the author of "Hillbilly Elegy," is facing a tougher-than-expected race against Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan and has recently been campaigning with national Republican figures, including former President Donald Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas.
"You got something really special here. This guy is going to change the Republican Party, change the Senate, all for the better," Graham said near the beginning of his address, referring to Vance. "But here's some words that really rattle the Democratic Party. What's the worst thing the Democratic Party wants to hear? Chairman Jim Jordan."
Jordan, a leader of the party's right flank and the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, has pledged to conduct investigations into the FBI and the Justice Department if the GOP retakes the House.
"There are going to be people jumping off bridges in San Francisco by the thousands," Graham said, bursting into laughter along with the crowd. "You know, New York City, they may literally shut down."
An average of 30 people die by suicide every year at the Golden Gate Bridge. More than 1,800 people in total have plunged to their deaths from the famous bridge — the largest number of jumping suicides for any bridge in the country, according to the Los Angeles Times. Officials recently began constructing a steel net underneath the bridge to prevent deaths.
Graham has made a version of this joke at least once before, when he denied rumors that he might be gay in a 2009 interview with The New York Times.
"I know it's really going to upset a lot of gay men — I'm sure hundreds of 'em are going to be jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge — but I ain't available," Graham said in the interview. "I ain't gay. Sorry."
Jordan, a staunch ally of Trump, helped found the conservative House Freedom Caucus and previously served as chair of the House Republican Study Committee. He's promised the judiciary committee will "aggressively" investigate the Department of Justice and other government entities and officials if the GOP retakes control of the House.
At the Lima event, Graham went on to joke about Democratic Rep. Jerry Nadler's weight. The current chair of the judiciary committee has been open in the past about his struggles with weight loss.
"I can't wait until he gets the gavel. The best trade in the history of politics is Jerry Nadler for Jim Jordan," Graham said. "You're saving about 200 pounds."
Graham also underscored the broader stakes of the 2022 midterm elections, saying that Republicans would be able to investigate Democrats on a variety of issues if they regained power.
"The bottom line is we'll have oversight. We'll ask questions you've been dying for somebody to ask, and we'll see what kind of answers we get," he said. "We'll get to the bottom a lot of this crap. You can only do that if you're in charge."
At the outset of the dinner, Vance praised Graham, saying he'd followed his career for a long time.
"I've watched him on TV. I've watch him on Fox News, like a lot of you," Vance said.
Vance said Graham especially impressed him with an impassioned defense of the Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh in 2018. The candidate said that his wife, Usha, had once worked for Kavanaugh when he was a federal judge.
"I've never seen Washington do anything like they did to Brett Kavanaugh," Vance said. "And his most energetic, most passionate, and, I think, the most effective defender was a great senator from South Carolina: Lindsey Graham."
Just before the event, Vance and Graham took a handful of questions from the media.
Insider asked the two men — who are both prominent examples of Republicans who strongly condemned Trump only to later become his loyal cheerleaders — about their support for the former president.
"I don't know that we've talked about it," Vance said, gesturing toward Graham. "My argument is: When a guy does a good job, you ought to change your mind, because when the facts change, that's what thinking people do."
"Primaries are contested," said Graham, who also sought the Republican nomination for president in 2016.
"You know, all the opponents of Joe Biden got on board because he beat them," he added. "When Trump beat me, I accepted my defeat, and I thought he was a good president on the things that I care about. So there you go."
Correction: October 27, 2022 — An earlier version of this story misnamed the Ohio GOP chair. His first name is Bob, not Mike.