{"id":1011198,"date":"2026-08-19T18:18:17","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T18:18:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1011198\/"},"modified":"2026-08-19T18:18:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T18:18:17","slug":"sen-darline-graham-says-shes-not-that-informed-on-national-security","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1011198\/","title":{"rendered":"Sen. Darline Graham says she’s ‘not that informed on national security’"},"content":{"rendered":"

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) \u2014 Sen. Darline Graham<\/a> stumbled in a Tuesday night debate over an elementary question about foreign policy, a signature issue of her late brother. It was a high-profile misstep a week before she faces a runoff election<\/a> in her bid to hold onto the South Carolina seat to which she was appointed last month.<\/p>\n

Graham, a political novice, was asked whether the U.S. has a national security interest in Taiwan and the South China Sea \u2014 a longstanding contention of both Democratic and Republican administrations. She struggled to answer before admitting \u201cnational security is not my thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not that informed on national security,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Her rival in next week\u2019s runoff for the GOP nomination, Rep. Ralph Norman<\/a>, suggested the answer showed Graham was unqualified for the role. <\/p>\n

\u201cBy her choice, she\u2019s running for the United States Senate. It\u2019s a six-year term,\u201d Norman said. \u201cYou need to get fully versed in what issues you\u2019re going to be dealing with. This isn\u2019t a get training on the job, you can\u2019t do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was a moment that drew a stark contrast to Graham\u2019s brother, Lindsey, who died unexpectedly on July 11. It also gave Norman, an established conservative politician, a fresh avenue of attack as he tries to overcome President Donald Trump\u2019s endorsement of Graham<\/a> in her first campaign. The Republican president is set to visit South Carolina on Friday to campaign for her.<\/p>\n

During his decades in the Senate, Lindsey Graham was known for his foreign policy involvement, making countless foreign trips, sometimes as part of a group of U.S. lawmakers meeting with international leaders and observing contentious areas firsthand. <\/p>\n

There were multiple trips to Taiwan, including in 2022, when he led a delegation<\/a> for a two-day visit that included meetings with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen and the island\u2019s defense minister.<\/p>\n

Darline Graham had been asked, \u201cAre Taiwan and the South China Sea national security issues for the United States and if so, why or how?\u201d<\/p>\n

Graham avoided a direct response, and instead mentioned her brother\u2019s wealth of experience and her desire to lead differently.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy brother was in the Air Force for 33 years, so I will do everything I can to support the military,\u201d said Graham, who often read from a legal pad on which she had notes, its pages draped over the front of her lectern. \u201cMy dad was in the Army. I\u2019m not a polished politician up here; national security is not my thing, not my area of expertise, but I do support the military.\u201d<\/p>\n

Candidates were not allowed to bring notes into the debate, but Graham spent several minutes before the broadcast began copiously writing on her legal pad. Norman wrote down a few things but not as extensively.<\/p>\n

As interim senator, Graham is surrounded by many of her brother\u2019s Capitol Hill staff, many of whom worked with him for years on issues foreign and domestic. She\u2019s repeatedly thanked them for getting her up to speed on legislative issues and has pointed to her several weeks on the job as a productive time in which she\u2019s gotten legislation passed, including a Russia sanctions bill named for her brother.<\/p>\n

In the wake of her brother\u2019s death<\/a>, Graham has been asked multiple times about how she would either further or shift away from his intense focus on national security, an attitude that was at the essence of his Senate portfolio. <\/p>\n

Asked after the debate by reporters if she wanted another crack at her answer to moderators\u2019 question, she doubled down, saying she was more focused on South Carolinians\u2019 everyday concerns.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re worried about their pocketbooks more than they\u2019re worried about the South China Sea, quite honestly,\u201d Graham said. \u201cSo that\u2019s going to be my biggest focus.\u201d<\/p>\n

Graham added that she had spoken multiple times during the debate about the overall national security threat posed by China. <\/p>\n

\u201cI realize national security is very important,\u201d Graham said. \u201cI probably said 10 times up there tonight how bad China is, how they\u2019re a national threat to us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Taiwan has often been a flashpoint for aggression from China and international efforts to support its right to self-rule. The U.S. maintains a policy of strategic ambiguity over whether it would defend Taiwan militarily if the mainland invaded, but has committed to bolstering the island\u2019s defense for generations. <\/p>\n

Claimed by China as part of its territory, Taiwan sits along a South China Sea global trade route, virtually all of which China claims despite a 2016 arbitration ruling<\/a> based on the 1982 U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea that invalidated Beijing\u2019s expansive claims.<\/p>\n

During a visit to Manila this week<\/a>, Adm. Frank Bradley, commander of the U.S. Special Operations Command, said that American special operations forces are ready to step up warfighting-readiness exercises with counterparts in the Philippines and other countries in Asia to further strengthen a security alliance and help deter a major conflict in the region.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Meg Kinnard can be reached at http:\/\/x.com\/MegKinnardAP<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) \u2014 Sen. Darline Graham stumbled in a Tuesday night debate over an elementary question about…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1011199,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[7373,13214,13212,396074,69,90,200309,57,86,16541,126128,8132,14944,50,80,376193,136845,32857,3036,24951,30723,97159,299683,67,96561,132,68,93,107],"class_list":["post-1011198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","category-us","tag-2026-elections","tag-asia-pacific","tag-china-government","tag-darline-graham","tag-donald-trump","tag-elections","tag-frank-bradley","tag-general-news","tag-government-policy","tag-lindsey-graham","tag-meg-kinnard","tag-military-and-defense","tag-national-security","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-ralph-norman","tag-run-off-elections","tag-sc-state-wire","tag-south-carolina","tag-south-china-sea","tag-taiwan","tag-taiwan-government","tag-tsai-ing-wen","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-senate","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-washington-news","tag-world-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117123554127116345","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1011198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1011198"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1011198\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1011199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1011198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1011198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1011198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}