Lindsey Graham calls Twitter's Trump ban a mistake: 'Ayatollah can tweet, but Trump can’t'
'Twitter may ban me for this,' the senator observed tartly
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Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., lashed out at Twitter after the social media site announced a ban on President Trump's personal account, a move the longtime Trump ally called a "serious mistake."
TWITTER SUSPENDS @realDonaldTrump ACCOUNT PERMANENTLY
"Twitter may ban me for this but I willingly accept that fate," Graham tweeted Saturday. "The Ayatollah can tweet, but Trump can’t. Says a lot about the people who run Twitter."
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Twitter defended the ban, which followed an attack on the Capitol earlier this week that left five people dead -- including a police officer -- and a number of shaken lawmakers calling for Trump to resign or be impeached.
"After close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context around them — specifically how they are being received and interpreted on and off Twitter — we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence," the company wrote in a blog post Friday night.
LINDSEY GRAHAM CALLED 'TRAITOR' BY CROWD AT AIRPORT
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The platform had temporarily locked Trump's account earlier this week -- an unprecedented move -- after dubbing several of his tweets as contributing to the Capitol siege Wednesday as lawmakers were holding a joint session to count Electoral College ballots that handed the White House to Trump's Democratic challenger Joe Biden.
Graham and numerous other conservative voices on Twitter griped that the social media company went too far by banning Trump, while still allowing dictators from murderous regimes to use the site.
A spokesperson for Twitter did not respond to Fox News' request for comment.
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Graham's advocacy for Trump's social media presence comes after he distanced himself from the president on the Senate floor, saying "enough is enough."
Graham was referring at the time to Trump's rhetoric at a rally before the Capitol assault in which the president encouraged supporters to "fight" for the "stolen election."
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Meanwhile, the South Carolina senator has faced pushback of his own from Trump supporters, who mobbed him at the airport in Washington, D.C. on Friday, calling him a "traitor" for betraying the president's loyalty.