Sen. Lindsey Graham said Wednesday that adversaries in Russia and China are walking all over President Obama, a practice he would end if elected the next commander-in-chief.
“We’re being walked over all over because our commander-in-chief is weak in the eyes of our enemies. Do you think Putin would be in the Ukraine today if Ronald Reagan were president. Why are the Chinese stealing our intellectual property, hacking into our system? Why are they building islands over research-rich waters? Because they can get away with it,” Graham said during the undercard debate on CNBC.
The South Carolina Republican said his strong foreign policy would involve “a clenched fist and an open hand,” prompting many online to joke that the presidential contender was playing a high-stakes game of rock, paper, scissors.
“At the end of the day, ladies and gentlemen, the foreign policy of Barack Obama needs to be replaced and the last person you want to find to replace his foreign policy is his secretary of state,” he said. “So the Chinese: When it comes to dealing with me, you’ve got a clenched fist and an open hand. You pick. The party’s over to all the dictators. Make me commander-in-chief, and this crap stops!”
Graham also defended the recent budget deal, saying that it puts more money in the military’s coffers at a time when threats to the country are growing under the current administration.
“I’ve never seen so many threats to our homeland than I have today. Barack Obama is an incompetent commander-in-chief,” Graham said.
“I am looking at this budget with one view in mind: Will it restore the ability to defend this nation?” he said.
The budget deal provides about $84 billion more for the military in fiscal 2016 than if sequestration had been allowed to go back into effect, but is still about $5 billion short of the president’s request.
