Sen. Lindsey Graham is asking for federal aid for his home state of South Carolina as it battles raging floods, but he voted to oppose similar help for New Jersey in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy in 2013.
“Let’s just get through this thing, and whatever it costs, it costs,” Graham told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on “The Situation Room” on Monday of the devastating floods in his home state.
Graham was among the Republican senators who opposed a federal aid package in January 2013 to assist states hit by Hurricane Sandy, but now he doesn’t remember why.
“I’m all for helping the people in New Jersey. I don’t really remember me voting that way,” Graham said.
Pressed further, he said: “Anyway, I don’t really recall that, but I’d be glad to look and tell you why I did vote no, if I did.”
Graham described himself as a “pretty kind-hearted fellow,” and said he’d heard from South Carolinians, Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-New York.
Graham said he tends to “try to be there for friends and neighbors, so hope they’ll be there for us.”
Many Republicans opposed the $51 billion Sandy relief package in 2013 because they said it included too much spending on unrelated programs.