South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham says he blocked a resolution to formally recognize the Armenian genocide during World War I at the request of the White House. Graham told the news outlet Axios that a White House official asked him to object to the resolution. Graham says he agreed because Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was in town, saying, “That would’ve been poor timing. I’m trying to salvage the relationship if possible.” The resolution, which passed the House last month, would make it U.S. policy to commemorate the killing of 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Empire as genocide.