--- title: Lindsey Graham Warns Democrats 'Watch Out For Your Nominees' After Christine Blasey Ford Hearing description: The Senator said that more nominees could face accusations in the future canonical: https://time.com/5408824/lindsey-graham-warns-democrats-nominees-christine-blasey-ford-hearing/ author: Abigail Abrams article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-09-27T18:53:48.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:49:02.464Z article:section: Politics og:title: Lindsey Graham Warns Democrats 'Watch Out For Your Nominees' After Christine Blasey Ford Hearing og:description: The Senator said that more nominees could face accusations in the future og:url: https://time.com/5408824/lindsey-graham-warns-democrats-nominees-christine-blasey-ford-hearing/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2d8916c05e257c66/69893b54e76ad2c8296331d3/lindsey-graham-brett-kavanaugh-christine-blasey-ford-hearing.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5184 og:image:height: 2916 og:image:alt: Senate Judiciary Committee Brett Kavanaugh nomination hearing, Washington DC, USA - 27 Sep 2018 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Lindsey Graham Warns Democrats 'Watch Out For Your Nominees' After Christine Blasey Ford Hearing twitter:description: The Senator said that more nominees could face accusations in the future twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2d8916c05e257c66/69893b54e76ad2c8296331d3/lindsey-graham-brett-kavanaugh-christine-blasey-ford-hearing.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Lindsey Graham Warns Democrats 'Watch Out For Your Nominees' After Christine Blasey Ford Hearing > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: Christine Blasey Ford's Opening Remarks on Her Allegation of Sexual Assault Against Brett Kavanaugh [Watch (HLS stream): Christine Blasey Ford's Opening Remarks on Her Allegation of Sexual Assault Against Brett Kavanaugh](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/N6tki2fa.m3u8) (3:52)  _Published 2018-09-27. Christine Blasey Ford's Opening Remarks on Her Allegation of Sexual Assault Against Brett Kavanaugh_ by [Abigail Abrams](https://time.com/author/abigail-abrams/) ## Abigail Abrams Sep 27, 2018 6:53 PM UTC  Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) listens to Dr. Christine Blasey Ford speak before the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to be an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, on Capitol Hill on Sept. 27. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) listens to Dr. Christine Blasey Ford speak before the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to be an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, on Capitol Hill on Sept. 27. Pool via CNP/REX/Shutterstock—Pool via CNP/REX/Shutterstock by [Abigail Abrams](https://time.com/author/abigail-abrams/) ## Abigail Abrams Sep 27, 2018 6:53 PM UTC Sen. Lindsey Graham responded to Christine Blasey Ford’s testimony on Thursday by sending a threat to Democrats: “If this is the new norm, you better watch out for your nominees,” he said. The South Carolina Republican has been vocal in his defense of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, calling for moving forward with a vote on the nomination even before Thursday’s hearing began. While some lawmakers have said they wanted to wait to hear Ford’s testimony before making further judgments and [three Republican governors](http://time.com/5408593/republican-governors-brett-kavanaugh-voting/) on Thursday called to delay voting to confirm Kavanaugh, Graham expressed skepticism. “If this becomes the new standard, where you have an accusation for weeks, you withhold from the committee a chance to do this in a professional timely fashion, when they publicly say to delay the vote, get the Senate back in 2018 to make sure he can’t fill the seat — they’re publicly saying that — I don’t want to reward that behavior,” Graham told reporters on Thursday. > [](https://twitter.com/MSNBC/status/1045362723637399554) “I think we’ve been very fair,” he added. “And to my Republican colleagues, if you can ignore everything in this record, look at an allegation that’s 35 years old, that’s uncertain in time, place, date and no corroboration, if that’s enough for you, God help us all as Republicans.” Graham then claimed that Republicans more often get accused of sexual misconduct, but said that Democrats should be on the lookout for more accusations in the future. “‘Cause this happens to us, it never happens to them,” he said. “But let me tell you my Democratic friends: if this is the new norm, you better watch out for your nominees.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5408824/lindsey-graham-warns-democrats-nominees-christine-blasey-ford-hearing/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5408824/lindsey-graham-warns-democrats-nominees-christine-blasey-ford-hearing/"},"headline":"Lindsey Graham Warns Democrats 'Watch Out For Your Nominees' After Christine Blasey Ford Hearing","datePublished":"2018-09-27T18:53:48.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:49:02.464Z","description":"The Senator said that more nominees could face accusations in the future","url":"https://time.com/5408824/lindsey-graham-warns-democrats-nominees-christine-blasey-ford-hearing/","keywords":["Supreme Court","Senate","Congress","justice"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2d8916c05e257c66/69893b54e76ad2c8296331d3/lindsey-graham-brett-kavanaugh-christine-blasey-ford-hearing.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Abigail Abrams","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/abigail-abrams/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2d8916c05e257c66/69893b54e76ad2c8296331d3/lindsey-graham-brett-kavanaugh-christine-blasey-ford-hearing.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Senate Judiciary Committee Brett Kavanaugh nomination hearing, Washington DC, USA - 27 Sep 2018","caption":"Senate Judiciary Committee Brett Kavanaugh nomination hearing, Washington DC, USA - 27 Sep 2018","creditText":"Pool via CNP/REX/Shutterstock—Pool via CNP/REX/Shutterstock","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5408824/lindsey-graham-warns-democrats-nominees-christine-blasey-ford-hearing/","name":"Lindsey Graham Warns Democrats 'Watch Out For Your Nominees' After Christine Blasey Ford Hearing"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Christine Blasey Ford's Opening Remarks on Her Allegation of Sexual Assault Against Brett Kavanaugh","description":"Christine Blasey Ford's Opening Remarks on Her Allegation of Sexual Assault Against Brett Kavanaugh","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/N6tki2fa/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2018-09-27T16:31:36.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/N6tki2fa.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/5408824/lindsey-graham-warns-democrats-nominees-christine-blasey-ford-hearing/","duration":"PT3M52S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/5408824/lindsey-graham-warns-democrats-nominees-christine-blasey-ford-hearing/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```