Senator Graham, the cellphone destroyer

Mr Lindsey Graham can be seen on YouTube wrecking his old phone.
Mr Lindsey Graham can be seen on YouTube wrecking his old phone. PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

WASHINGTON • After Mr Donald Trump tweaked Republican rival Lindsey Graham by publicly giving out his cellphone number, the South Carolina senator went on YouTube to show how many ways he could destroy his old flip-phone.

A video shows Mr Graham hacking, grinding, crushing, smashing and burning cellphones to the strains of Vivaldi's Four Seasons. He uses a cleaver, a blender, a cinderblock, a golf club, a toaster oven and a barbecue grill before tossing a cellphone from a building. Created by the Independent Journal Review news website, the video is entitled "How to destroy your cellphone with Sen. Lindsey Graham".

Mr Trump, who has been scorching his Republican presidential rivals in insult-filled rants, this week gave out Mr Graham's cellphone number so that people could inundate him with their own complaints. Mr Graham tweeted that he would be giving up his old phone.

"This is for all the veterans," he says at the end of the video, before tossing away his phone.

He was referring to Mr Trump's having belittled Mr John McCain's status as a war hero for having endured years of captivity during the Vietnam War. Mr Trump reasoned that Mr McCain was not a war hero because he had been captured.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on July 25, 2015, with the headline Senator Graham, the cellphone destroyer. Subscribe