Desperate Lindsey Graham invokes Ruth Bader Ginsburg as he struggles to defend Clarence Thomas at hearing

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) struggled on Tuesday to defend Justice Clarence Thomas' alleged ethics violations.

At Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Supreme Court ethics, Graham said the topic should not be about unreported gifts Thomas received from a billionaire.

"We can talk about ethics, and that's great," he asserted, "but we're also going to talk about today of a concentrated effort by the left to delegitimize this court and to cherry-pick examples to make a point."

Graham suggested that reports about conservative justices accepting lavish gifts were biased.

"The New York Times did not tell us about Justice Sotomayor's travel to Florence, Italy," he complained before invoking former Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. "Justice Sotomayor and Justice Ginsburg traveled to Florence, Italy on the dime of the New York University."

The senator insisted the hearing "was not going to work."

"I'm just saying there's a very selective outrage here, and from our point of view on this side of the aisle, we're going to push back as hard as we can and tell the American people the truth about what's going on here," he concluded. "This is not about making the court better. This is about destroying a conservative court. It will not work."

Watch the video clip below from the Senate Judiciary Committee.