Good question, and Lindsey Graham makes sure to frame it as a value applicable to all parties. “No party should be hiring foreign agents to look at their opponents,” Graham told reporters this morning, “and we shouldn’t be taking meetings” with them, either. For Democrats setting their hair on fire over Donald Trump’s comments this morning, the Senate Judiciary chair advises, they should first remember that Hillary Clinton and the DNC did exactly that in 2016 too. “I’m hoping that some of my Democratic colleagues will take more seriously,” Graham argued, “that Christopher Steele was a foreign agent paid for by the Democratic Party to gather dirt on Trump.”

I’m guessing that Graham will have to remind them of this. Often:

Sen. Lindsey Graham says "it's a mistake" for President Trump to say he would be willing to accept dirt on political rivals from foreign governments.

"I don't want to send a signal to encourage this." https://t.co/n1mQaFaD98 pic.twitter.com/qDvDrcCjcq

— CNN (@CNN) June 13, 2019

Graham later extended his remarks on Twitter to make it clear that bad things happen when we invite foreign entities to clandestinely participate in our elections. Graham insisted that he has not changed his position at all on that question, and pointed back to his questioning of FBI director Christopher Wray on the matter during Wray’s confirmation hearing. Any campaign approached by a foreign entity with potential dirt should alert the FBI, especially given the heightened efforts to interfere with American elections:

First, I believe that it should be practice for all public officials who are contacted by a foreign government with an offer of assistance to their campaign – either directly or indirectly – to inform the FBI and reject the offer.

— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) June 13, 2019

But this has not been recent practice and we saw that come to a head during the 2016 presidential campaign.

During that race, we had a major American political party hire a foreign national, Christopher Steele, to dig up dirt on an American presidential candidate.

— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) June 13, 2019

Had both parties adhered to a domestic-only oppo-research policy, Graham argued, an American citizen wouldn’t have wound up being the target of a FISA surveillance warrant:

………..and that information, unverified, was apparently used by the FBI to obtain a warrant against an American citizen.

— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) June 13, 2019

At his presser, CNN’s Manu Raju asked Graham if he’d push for a law to forbid engagement with foreign entities by campaigns. Graham laughs and says that he’s pretty sure one already exists, but “I’m willing to make it clear if we need to.” It looks like he’s doing just that.