The Hill News

President Obama doesn't understand the message from Tuesday's election, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) charged on Wednesday.

Graham responded to the president by arguing that voters did, in fact, reject the policies sought by the White House and congressional Democrats in the past two years.

"I just listened to the president and, quite frankly, I don't believe he gets the results of the election fully," Graham said in a conference call with South Carolina reporters. "Having listened to him, he rejects the idea that this election was a rejection of his policies."

Obama faced the press at the White House after the "shellacking" the president acknowledged his party had received in the midterms. The president expressed humility and vowed to try to work with the emboldened congressional GOP, though he wouldn't concede that the voters had effectively repudiated the polices he'd sought since taking office.

"I think that what I think is absolutely true is voters are not satisfied with the outcomes," he said when pressed on the question of whether voters had repudiated his policies. "The fact is is that, you know, for most folks, the proof of whether they work or not is 'has the economy gotten back to where it needs to be?' And it hasn't."

Graham contended in response that Democrats' major losses were directly attributable to the agenda Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) had sought in Congress.

"I do believe, without any doubt, that the rea! son Democrats suffered such major setbacks ... was because of ! the poli cies coming out of the House of Representatives under Pelosi and President Obama himself," he said.