South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham has received a resounding spanking from the Senate Ethics Committee for encouraging people to donate to Herschel Walker during Georgia’s Senate runoff election last year, Queerty reports.

In an appearance on Fox News last November that was taped in the Russell Senate Rotunda, Graham repeatedly urged viewers to donate to Walker’s campaign, even to the point of mentioning the former NFL star’s website at least five times in nine minutes.

“Go team Herschel. com,” Graham said. “If you can give five or ten bucks, it will help him close the gap!”

So why was Graham in trouble?

Well, because politicians are forbidden from asking for campaign donations on federal property, which is what the Russell Rotunda is. And the Senate Ethics Committee told Graham that in a letter yesterday. The committee found that the senator did, in fact, “solicit federal campaign contributions and otherwise impermissibly conducted campaign activity in a federal building.”

“The public must feel confident that Members use public resources only for official actions in the best interests of the United States, not for partisan political activity,” the panel wrote. “Your actions failed to uphold that standard, result in harm to the public trust and confidence in the United States Senate.”

“You are hereby admonished.”

In a tweet, Manu Raju, CNN’s chief congressional correspondent noted:

“In a letter to Sen. Lindsey Graham, the bipartisan Senate Ethics Committee admonished him for soliciting campaign contributions five times during a media interview in the Russell Senate office building. It is against Senate rules to solicit campaign donations on Capitol grounds.”

In a letter to Sen. Lindsey Graham, the bipartisan Senate Ethics Committee admonished him for soliciting campaign contributions five times during a media interview in the Russell Senate office building. It is against Senate rules to solicit campaign donations on Capitol grounds pic.twitter.com/amc5ipcosw

— Manu Raju (@mkraju) March 23, 2023

Graham responded to the letter, which was signed by Democratic chair Chris Coons (Delaware) and GOP Vice Chair James Lankford (Oklahoma)  by saying contritely that “he’ll try to do better” in the future.

“It was a mistake,” he told Politico. “I take responsibility. I will try to do better in the future.”

But according to Queerty, this isn’t the first time Graham has broken this rule.

Graham solicited donations for his own reelection campaign in 2020 during an interview in a Dirksen hallway after a Judiciary Committee hearing in 2020, and the letter also reprimanded him for this.

Sure, this is a formal admonishment, but it’s little more than a slap on the wrist for Graham. Nevertheless, it’s pretty embarrassing for him because Walker lost to his Democratic opponent, Sen. Raphael Warnock in the Georgia runoff election. And Walker has pretty much dropped into relative obscurity.

Maybe Graham won’t do this anymore, but he’s Trump’s lapdog so who wants to bet he’s willing to break the rules for his former president?