'No one is surprised': Trump Jr hits out at Lindsey Graham failing to echo unfounded voter fraud claims

Senator broke silence but did not mention voter fraud allegations

As family members and loyalists to Donald Trump fan out across the country with wild, baseless accusations of voter fraud and a rigged count, many key Republicans have remained quiet.

Responding to a post by Jack Posobiec, the alt-right activist and internet troll, that read: “Not one tweet from @LindseyGrahamSC in 24 hours,” the president’s eldest son wrote: “No one is surprised.”

Republicans who won re-election, such as Senator Graham, have been accused by Trump supporters of using his popularity to win back their seats but then abandoning the president.

The tweet follows an earlier dig by Donald Trump Jr at other key figures in the Republican Party for not supporting his father. He singled out Nikki Haley, often cited as a future presidential candidate for the party.

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“Everyone should be watching who is actually fighting this flagrant nonsense and who is sitting on the sidelines,” he tweeted referring to the continued counting of legal ballots in a number of key states.

Over the past four years, Senator Graham went from one of Mr Trump’s greatest critics to being his regular partner on the golf course.

His silence as the president faces a potential electoral defeat is perhaps, as Don Jr says, not surprising given this record of shifting loyalty and his flip-flopping on whether there should be a Supreme Court appointment in an election year.

A response to Mr Trump Jr’s tweet read: “Seems like the republicans that won used trump to win re-election and now don’t care if he wins or loses.”

To which another user replied: “That’s politics”.

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Since Mr Trump Jr’s tweet, Mr Graham has broken his social media silence, encouraging Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to push a more aggressive social agenda within the Democratic Party.

“My advice to @AOC - Stick to your guns and be more aggressive in pushing the Dem Party toward the socialist agenda,” he tweeted. “Do not be shy in driving your party even further left and certainly don’t let the Claire McCaskill’s of the world silence your voice.”

Ms Ocasio-Cortez had slammed former Senator Claire McCaskill for her criticism of how the election was fought on cultural and identity issues, alienating some voters.

“Act on your beliefs! I know you really mean it when it comes to #DefundPolice,” Mr Graham continued sarcastically. “It is clear to me the Democratic establishment is trying to bury you and your movement -- don’t let it happen!”

Senator Graham also flagged up that he will be appearing on Sean Hannity’s show on Fox News on Thursday evening.

After Mr Graham’s tweets, one user screenshot Mr Trump Jr’s tweet and captioned it: “Graham comes running like a dog”.