Fox News host tussles with Lindsey Graham over 'terrible tactics, terrible timing' of abortion law announcement

Fox News host Jesse Watters confronted Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) over the odd timing of his abortion bill announcement.

What is the background?

On Tuesday, Graham held a press conference in which he introduced a new bill that would institute a national ban on abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy. The bill includes exceptions for rape, incest, or to protect the physical life of the mother.

Oddly, Graham chose to announce his bill on the same day that Bureau of Labor Statistics numbers showed that core inflation accelerated in August, the same month that President Joe Biden signed into law the Inflation Reduction Act. Even worse, the Biden administration chose Tuesday to celebrate the Inflation Reduction Act.

The moment was thus one that Republicans could have seized to highlight that inflation is only getting worse under Biden's leadership.

At the same time, the 2022 midterm elections are less than two months away. Republican lawmakers, therefore, were left wondering why Graham chose this time to announce legislation that could further galvanize Democratic voters angry over Roe v. Wade being overturned.

What happened with Watters?

Graham and Watters engaged in a fiery exchange in which Graham defended his timing and Watters repeatedly pointed out that it was "not great timing."

"Why'd you do it on that day? Not great timing — don't you see that?" Watters asked.

"I am proudly pro-life, and I have no apology for being pro-life. There's no bad time to defend the unborn," Graham responded, explaining he needed to respond to Democrats seeking to nationalize "abortion on demand."

"I am not going to sit on the sidelines," Graham added.

"No one is saying you need to sit on the sidelines, but yesterday wasn’t the day to do that," Watters interjected. "Yesterday was the day they lost all momentum when this inflation thing punched them right in the face, and you gave them an out. A lot of people don’t like that. You could have done it on any other day, just like you could have delayed the whole press conference like Joe should have delayed that stupid party."

There is no bad time to defend the unborn: Sen Lindsey Grahamwww.youtube.com

Graham, however, refused to apologize for the timing of his announcement, citing the need for Republicans to be "on the offensive."

Watters agreed with the substance of Graham's points, but knocked him for poor political "tactics."

"It's terrible timing, terrible tactics," Watters said. "We could have shoved this down their throat on the day Americans got hammered with the inflation number and the market crashing and now all the media and the Democrats are talking about, 'Federal abortion ban! Federal abortion ban!' You know that's not smart politics, right?"

The Republican senator, however, was stalwart in defending the timing of his announcement.

"If not now, when? If not me, who?" Graham said.

"I respect your opinion. But like I said: Timing is off and timing is everything," Watters responded. "I'm just talking raw politics, brass tactics."