South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham believes fellow Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is “not ready to be commander in chief” and has encouraged voters in his home state to shift their support to someone who is.
A previous feud between the two GOP candidates — which began when Graham called the New York businessman a “jackass,” leading Trump to retaliate by handing out Graham’s cell phone number — resurfaced last week when Graham pledged to “beat [Trump’s] brains out” in the South Carolina primary and continued Thursday when the senator appeared on MSNBC.
“Don’t judge us all by Mr. Trump’s policy choices,” Graham said on the network Thursday afternoon.
“The Trump approach to immigration is an outlier approach [and] on the foreign policy front, his approach to destroy ISIL by taking Iraq and Syrian oil for benefit would turn the whole Middle East against us,” he added.
Despite telling host Andrea Mitchell that “so far no damage has been done” by the outspoken billionaire, Graham said he worries about other candidates trying to “out-trump Trump.”
“Building a wall with Canada is probably not very helpful,” Graham said in reference to a recent interview where Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker described security breaches along the northern border as a “legitimate issue,” causing a flurry of media outlets to report that he favored erecting a wall along the U.S.-Canada border.
“Here’s my problem with Mr. Trump: He’s been very successful, and hats off to all his success, I just don’t think he’s ready to be commander in chief of a great nation and military that needs somebody who understands how the world works,” the South Carolina senator said.
Graham then described the former reality TV host’s solutions on domestic and foreign policy as “unsound, unworkable,” and “dangerously naive.”
“We’re not going to destroy ISIL, we’re going to embolden ISIL if we follow his lead,” he said.
Graham currently trails Trump in his home state by more than 26 points, according to the latest RealClearPolitics average.
In an attempt to resuscitate the senator’s candidacy, Graham’s principal outside support group, Security is Strength PAC, reportedly made a $1 million ad buy in New Hampshire earlier this week that highlights his military career and national security expertise.
