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Graham on Trump: He Came In Like A 'Wrecking Ball' By Eric Bradner, CNN July 12, 2015 (CNN)Sen. Lindsey Graham says Donald Trump is a "wrecking ball" who has put the Republican Party's future on the line with his controversial remarks about Mexican immigrants. "I think he's hijacked the debate. I think he's a wrecking ball for the future of the Republican Party with the Hispanic community and we need to push back," Graham said in an interview with CNN's Dana Bash on "State of the Union" Sunday. "This is a defining moment for the Republican Party. We need to...

<p>WASHINGTON (AP) — Two Republican foreign policy hawks said Monday that President Barack Obama needs to make a strong case for attacking Bashar Assad’s Syria if he wants to win congressional backing.</p> <p>At the same time, Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said it would be a mistake for Congress to reject Obama’s request.</p>

WASHINGTON -- If U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham wants to know why his foreign aid bill has stalled in the Senate, he need only look in the direction of the junior senator from South Carolina. In an extraordinary clash between Republican senators from the same state, U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint forced Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to postpone consideration this week of a $53.3 billion foreign aid bill, backed by Graham. DeMint demanded the bill be debated by itself and not combined with other spending measures. “I respect and work well with Lindsey, and I share his goal to secure our...

(snip) Graham said it is crucial for the U.S. to continue to support Israel, and said the president has "thrown Israel under the bus" by talking about settlements and pre-1967 borders. "It is our best friend in the Middle East," Graham said. He did praise the president for sending military advisers into Uganda.Graham said he is hoping to hear more on foreign policy from the Republican presidential candidates. "Rick Santorum is speaking like Ronald Reagan better than anybody else on peace and strength," Graham said. "Ronald Reagan confronted the challenges of his time. He did not isolate America." Graham declined...

South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, who’s taken on tough tasks from immigration reform to climate change, faces another one as he calls for spending billions of dollars overseas on unpopular foreign aid programs that he insists are vital to U.S. national security. With Congress facing mandatory spending cuts and previously sacrosanct military programs on the chopping block, Graham is trying to protect funding for foreign aid even as most Americans oppose it – 71 percent in a recent poll – and other Republican leaders call for focusing U.S. resources at home. “It is a tough sell, but you can be...

South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham conceded Wednesday that he and his fellow Republicans are now eating their own words as they try to convince the country they are working to stave off a federal default. “Our problem is we made a big deal about this for three months. How many Republicans have been on TV saying, ‘I’m not going to raise the debt limit.’ You know, Mitch [McConnell] says, ‘I’m not going to raise the debt limit unless we talk about Medicare.’ And I’ve said I’m not going to raise the debt limit until we do something about spending and...

Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said on Thursday the survival of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's regime could spell the end of NATO. “Logically you can exact that if he [Gadhafi] outlasts NATO, the Arab spring is over,” said Graham. "…He will take it out on his people, I think it will affect the price of oil and would be the end of NATO because NATO taking on Gadhafi and losing -- its going to be very hard for that organization to go off to another war and be taken seriously.” Speaking on the Senate floor, Graham and...

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Sunday that Congress should not interfere with U.S. operations in Libya. "Congress should sort of shut up and not empower [Libyan leader Muammar] Qadhafi," Graham said on NBC's "Meet the Press." Congressional critics of the Libya action have been floating the possibility of defunding military operations there, or invoking the War Powers Act to force an end to the military operation.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Sunday that any Republican-backed plan to raise more government revenue would have to come from eliminating subsidies and tax deductions, not by raising taxes. "No one on the Republican side is going to vote to raise taxes, but I think many of us would look at flattening the tax code, doing away with deductions and exemptions and take that revenue and help pay off the debt," said Graham on NBC's "Meet the Press."

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Sunday that Congress should not interfere with U.S. operations in Libya. "Congress should sort of shut up and not empower [Libyan leader Muammar] Qadhafi," Graham said on NBC's "Meet the Press." Congressional critics of the Libya action have been floating the possibility of defunding military operations there, or invoking the War Powers Act to force and end to the military operation. "I would take the course that conservatives have been taking for the last 30 years -- The War Powers Act is unconstitutional, not worth the paper its written on," Graham declared. "It's an infringement...

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Sunday that it’s time to consider international intervention in Syria to avoid the further “slaughter” of people there by President Bashar al-Assad’s forces. “If it made sense to protect the Libyan people against Gadhafi, and it did because they were going to get slaughtered if we hadn’t sent NATO in when he was on the outskirts of Benghazi, the question for the world [is], have we gotten to that point in Syria,” Graham said on the CBS' "Face the Nation."

Call him the little metrosexual that could. The fussy, fastidious, and pampered senator from South Carolina just keeps chugging along supremely impressed with the face looking out from the mirror in his posh Senate office and his status as the Beltway insiders' favorite Republican. "I'm [...] at the front of the line" for Barack Obama on Capitol Hill, he brags to the New York Times, which describes his "delight" in letting "people know" how important he is. After all, he is Lindsey Graham and he is Washington, nestled among the Beltway's palace courtiers like a flea on a Carolina Dog....

"I'm really tired of hearing people talking about 'it costs too much'" GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham was a guest on "Piers Morgan Tonight" and gave his reaction to Pres. Barack Obama's Libya speech tonight. While some Republicans have criticized Pres. Obama's Libya response, including Graham earlier in the conflict, he instead turned the tables and criticized those in his own party tonight. "We made mistakes in Iraq, and to my fellow Republican friends, nobody complained about the cost of Iraq or Afghanistan on our watch," he told Piers Morgan. "I'm really tired of hearing people talking about 'it costs too...

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) charged Sunday that the White House has been "very inconsistent and timid when it comes to Iran." On NBC's "Meet the Press," Graham welcomed the pro-democracy fervor that has ignited protests in nearby countries after the toppling of President Hosni Mubarak in Egypt. "I'd like to see regime change in Libya," he said. "I'd like to see regime change in Iran." While criticizing its handling of Iran, though, Graham said that "generally the administration has handled Egypt well."

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Saturday that the failed Democratic effort to pass the DREAM Act in the lame duck session dealt a blow to future talks on a wider immigration bill. “It was an exercise to try and taint Republicans with Hispanic voters, knowing that the DREAM Act under these circumstances could never pass,” Graham told reporters in the Capitol after the bill sputtered on the floor. “What they have done on the DREAM Act is hurt overall comprehensive immigration reform,” he said. The DREAM Act, which would give legal status to illegal immigrants who came to the country...

President Obama stands a good chance of being reelected in 2012 if he makes progress in Afghanistan, he adopts a tougher line against Iran, the economy improves and there are no major terrorist attacks in the United States, a senior Republican said Saturday. Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.), who has become a leading GOP national security spokesman, said that if Obama is looking for cooperation with Republicans, a continued U.S. military effort in Afghanistan is "one area where Republicans feel comfortable standing by the president" and are likely to give him more support than many in his own party. Although...

"One thing I think we ought to do, other than blocking his agenda and controlling spending, is trying to solve a hard problem like Social Security, and if we show our willingness to work with him on that, I think that would be well-received by the American people," Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) told WVOC-AM.

GLENDALE, Ariz. – Sen. John McCain hasn't always talked tough on immigration. That haunted his presidential ambitions, and now his political survival hinges on whether he can show that his conversion is genuine. It hasn't been easy. Boycotts, vigils and a legal fight over the state's attempted crackdown on illegal immigrants have kept voters attuned to each nuance in his run for re-election. "Since 2007, I've said we have to secure the border first. I said it in 2008 and 2009 and 2010," McCain told 120 people at a town hall meeting in suburban Phoenix. Leaning against the back wall...

NBC reports that Judiciary committeeman Sen. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) will vote to send the nomination of Elena Kagan to the floor of the U.S. Senate.

In a tiny little Hill blog piece yesterday, there was a blurb on an under-the-radar meeting, one-on-one, between Senator Lindsey Graham and Vice President Joe Biden.  This is worrisome on so....many....fronts. Joe Biden, for all of his gaffes and foibles, is still one smart political operative.  He rode the train home to Delaware with Arlen Specter on his way home to Pennsylvania every single weekend for years and is the one that most folks believe orchestrated Arlen's party switch.   Interesting piece here on the possibility for a White House job for Specter after his career as a Senator comes to...