Lindsey Graham is laying it all out there. In the wake of Donald Trump’s seemingly unstoppable march to the Republican presidential nomination on Tuesday (Mar. 1), Graham gave a tough-love assessment of his party’s failings in an interview with CBS’s Charlie Rose.
Coming from a Democrat, the comments would be be pointed; from a leading Republican, they are something else.
The video can be viewed on CBS.com; a partial transcript follows, with emphasis added.
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We’re about ready to lose to the most dishonest politician in America, Hillary Clinton.
How could you do that? Nominate someone who’s crazy. Dishonest beats crazy, and Donald Trump’s just crazy.
We’ll be divided, and we’re going to lose.
We may be in a position where we have to rally around Ted Cruz. [Graham recently said: ”If you killed Ted Cruz on the floor of the Senate, and the trial was in the Senate, nobody would convict you.”]
[Q: Would you support Cruz?] I can’t believe I would say yes, but yes.
35% of my party believes Barack Obama is a Muslim born in Kenya.
They see in Donald Trump an anti-Obama, a strongman who can fix a broken town called Washington, who doesn’t owe anything to anybody, who will tell our enemies “get back in line.” Who will make America great again.
What I see is a demagogue, someone who has solutions that will never work, that is playing on people’s prejudices and the dark side of politics.
[Q: You seem to be saying that Hillary Clinton will beat Donald Trump.]
No I don’t seem to be saying it, I am saying it. Like a drum.
Here’s what I’ll say when we lose to Hillary. The immigration issue is killing us. We’re doubling down on the problem we have with Hispanics.
Have you ever heard of too big to fail? We’re too stubborn to win. So here’s what I’m going to say in November when we lose: “I told you so!” Please stop beating up on the Hispanic community, and saying that most illegal immigrants are drug dealers and rapists—cause they’re not.
We’re losing because we’re in a demographic death spiral. How many times do you have to lose to understand why you’re losing?
Donald Trump’s not the answer to our problems.