When we learned that President Donald Trump axed Attorney General Jeff Sessions, it surprised approximately nobody who has been reading the news for the past few years. Trump has been berating Sessions with the abandon of a high school bully who has just been crowned prom king.

What was more surprising (though also extremely predictable) was the immediacy with which Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina rushed to defend Trump’s move to pile Sessions among the scattered corpses of political careers claimed by the Trump administration.

Graham put out his statement in a series of three tweets:

Jeff Sessions served our nation well and honorably as Attorney General.

He has dedicated his whole life to conservatism and upholding the Rule of Law. (1/3)

— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) November 7, 2018

As to me, I will be part of a larger Republican majority in the United States Senate — working with the President and my Republican and Democratic colleagues — to make America safer and more prosperous. (3/3)

— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) November 7, 2018

Of course, this hasn’t been Graham’s line forever. During some points in Trump’s administration, Graham has been openly critical of the president; especially at the moments when Trump attacked his late friend Sen. John McCain.

One clip from July of 2017 that made the rounds on Wednesday was a 30-second video of Graham in a Senate hallway telling reporters that “there will be holy hell to pay” if Sessions is fired.

Lindsey Graham in July 2017: "If Sessions is fired, there will be holy hell to pay." (via CNN) pic.twitter.com/VmqsAjXNlJ

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) November 7, 2018

Wednesday’s tweets weren’t the first time that Graham has walked back his defense of Sessions. In August of 2018, he said that it could be necessary for Trump to fire the Attorney General, saying “this relationship [between Trump and Sessions] is beyond repair, I think. I’m not asking him to be fired, but the relationship is not working.”

Sessions’ replacement as acting Attorney General is Matthew Whitaker, a former Sessions underling who has already expressed his opinion that Robert Mueller’s probe is overreaching. In a CNN op-ed Whitaker wrote:

“It is time for Rosenstein, who is the acting attorney general for the purposes of this investigation, to order Mueller to limit the scope of his investigation to the four corners of the order appointing him special counsel.”

As acting Attorney General, Whitaker will take control over the Mueller probe and could do the exact sort of thing he suggested in the CNN editorial.

Please note: This is a commentary piece. The views and opinions expressed within it are those of the author only and do not necessarily reflect the editorial opinion of IJR.