Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., stood by his controversial call Wednesday for the assassination of Russian President Vladimir Putin, which drew widespread condemnation from both sides of the aisle.
The conservative senator stirred a hornet’s nest earlier this month when he called on Russia’s ruling elite to assassinate Putin to end the invasion of Ukraine.
“The only way this ends is for somebody in Russia to take this guy out,” Graham tweeted.
Asked this week if he still thinks Putin should be killed, Graham said: “Yeah, I hope he’ll be taken out one way or another.”
Graham did offer an alternate scenario in which Putin would be arrested and tried for war crimes by the International Criminal Court.
“I don’t care how they take him out. I don’t care if we send him to The Hague and try him; I just want him to go,” Graham said.
The call for Putin's assassination prompted widespread pushback from across the political spectrum, including Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who said calling for the killing of Putin is dangerous and impulsive and could cause the Russian leader to lash out.
The White House says it doesn’t support the assassination of Putin, or any other world leader, due to an executive order first signed by then-President Gerald Ford, which prohibits any member of the U.S. government from engaging or conspiring to engage in any political assassination anywhere in the world.
The order was enacted in response to the post-Watergate revelations that the CIA had staged multiple attempts on the life of Cuban President Fidel Castro.
The ban against assassinations, which remains an undefined term, was established by presidential order and not legal statute, thanks to a compromise made between Congress and the White House in 1976.
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