It was supposed to be a defense of the president against charges of racism.

South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham made an appearance on CNN Thursday, and made his pitch in favor of the boss.

“You could be dark as charcoal and lily white, it doesn’t matter as long as you’re nice to him,” Graham said in an interview on CNN. “You could be the pope and criticize him, it doesn’t matter, he’ll go after the pope. You could be [Russian President Vladimir} Putin and say nice things, and he’ll like you.”

Yeah. Did you really just say that last line, Senator Graham?

I mean, common knowledge, but…

“Here’s what I found, he’s a street fighter,” Graham added. “It’s not the color of your skin that matters, it’s not the content of your character. It’s whether or not you show him respect and like him.”

That’s a really pathetic and unstable characteristic in a leader, to be quite honest.

Graham has apparently been trotted out to defend President Trump, after last week’s lingering blow up, regarding his referencing nations like Haiti and El Salvador as “sh*thole countries,” while asking why we don’t get more immigrants from places like Norway.

Graham was in the immigration meeting where the offensive comments were uttered, and while some of danced around, or denied he said them, Graham has said that what was reported was “basically accurate.”

That’s why some of what Graham was saying sounded more like coded language than an outright defense of the gilded toad.

While refusing to say definitively whether Trump made the comments or not, the senator also explained that he had his reasons for holding back.

“I want to make sure that I can keep talking to the president,” Graham said. “I told him what I thought, and that’s more important to me than anything else.”

Seriously. Serving as a Republican lawmaker these days must be exhausting.