In a video circulating widely on Twitter, the Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg and Senator Lindsey Graham discuss Christine Blasey Ford’s allegations against Brett Kavanaugh. At one point, Goldberg describes comments directed toward Ford by President Donald Trump as a “personal degrading attack on a private citizen.” Graham responds, “Here’s what's personally degrading: ‘This is what you get when you go through a trailer park with a $100 bill.’ "
As the crowd gasps, Goldberg steps in. “That’s actually a reference to something that somebody said,” to indicate that he realized Graham was not talking about Blasey Ford.
But many on Twitter, however, framed Graham’s comments incorrectly. John Iadarola, a host on the Young Turks network, tweeted Wednesday that Graham was referring to Blasey Ford.
Lindsey Graham on Christine Blasey Ford: "This is what happens when you go through a trailer park with a $100 bill."
— John Iadarola (@johniadarola) October 3, 2018
And on Donald Trump viciously mocking a sexual assault victim: "Everything he said was factually true." pic.twitter.com/ZPJEDJaxjg
Others tweeted out the quote, with the same insinuation.
"This is what you get when you go through a trailer park with a 100 dollar bill".
— Holly Figueroa O'Reilly 📢 (@AynRandPaulRyan) October 3, 2018
-- Lindsey Graham, when asked about Dr. Ford's credibility.
WTF is wrong with him?#wednesdaywisdom #october3rdpic.twitter.com/4ErrAgGQER
In a tweet that has since been deleted, Yahoo News also posted the video clip.

As a matter of fact, Graham clarified to the audience, as he responded to Goldberg, just who he was quoting: “James Carville. See, most of y’all are too young to remember this.”
Carville made the original trailer park crack—“if you drag a $100 bill through a trailer park, you never know what you’ll find,” to be precise—in reference to Paula Jones’ allegations of sexual harassment against Bill Clinton. So, while Graham was playing “whataboutism” he was not referring to Blasey Ford as being bought off (or being from a trailer park).
Iadarola later suggested that he “should have added more context to the original quote” but did not delete his original tweet.
Our colleague John McCormack summed this episode in misinformation nicely:
Have the intern run the Twitter account, they said. What could go wrong? https://t.co/XAF4uO1UsS
— John McCormack (@McCormackJohn) October 3, 2018
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