Posted on 08/12/2015 9:44:33 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
GOP presidential contender Lindsey Graham told a campaign rally Tuesday that he can’t support a government shutdown over Planned Parenthood, because it would endanger national security.
In a speech on foreign policy in South Carolina, Graham said he is opposed to federal funding on Planned Parenthood but warned a government shutdown would impair “our military, our intelligence community, the people we rely upon to protect us.”
The South Carolina senator’s stance puts him in line with Senate leadership but at odds with the majority of the 2016 field, who have backed the hard-lined approach advocated by fellow Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.).
“Let me just be clear about me and Planned Parenthood. If I were president, I would never submit a budget with one dime for Planned Parenthood,” Graham said, according to a report from Roll Call. “I am not going, as Senator Graham, to shut the government down because of this fight.
“Anybody that wants to shut down the government is shutting down the ability to stop the next attack, which I think is coming if we don’t do something differently,” he said, specifically calling out Cruz.
Over the last month, Planned Parenthood has been targeted by an anti-abortion group that has released six videos attempting to show the health provider involved in illegal activity. Planned Parenthood has fiercely denied the claims.
The videos, which are mostly comprised of secretly recorded footage, have inflamed conservatives on Capitol Hill and in statehouses around the country — putting pressure on 2016 candidates to take a strong stance against the health group.
Billionaire businessman Donald Trump is the only candidate to defend Planned Parenthood, telling Fox News on Tuesday night that he supports federal funding for some parts of the organization.
"There are many ways to do that, because I'm totally against the abortion aspect, but I've had many women, I've had many Republican conservative women come up and say Planned Parenthood serves a good function other than the one aspect," he said in an interview with Sean Hannity. "We have to help women."
Graham, along with his Senate GOP colleagues, has already voted to defund Planned Parenthood in the wake of the video controversy, though the effort ultimately failed with support from only one Democratic senator.
Graham delivered his remarks in Columbia, S.C., in a speech focused on foreign policy. During the same appearance, he announced members of his South Carolina National Security Coalition.
The South Carolina senator will give another speech in his home state on Wednesday, his third in as many days.
Goodbye Linda ...
Of course he does...
Graham has always worried one his boyfriends may make him pregnant. What would he do then?
Graham throws Pro-Lifers under the bus again. The guy is with you until the bullets start flying then he hightails it.
Who is this Graham guy of who you speak? Or is it whom?
Well this should ignite his campaign...
/sarc
Another nail in his coffin.
“Never fight. It makes you look mean. You don’t want to be mean, do you? Look at me. I’m not mean. I never fight (well, except for those bad, bad tea party crazies).”
Can someone explain how the military can be funded and Planned Parenthood not funded without a government shutdown? Are we yet again funding government with a single omnibus appropriations bill? Can’t each agency, board, commission, etc. be funding with its own appropriations bill?
You are wicked and funny as hell.
Just some cracker from South Carolina...
Basically the only domestic federal government service that citizens should be affected by with respect to a federal government shutdown is delayed mail (1.8.7). In other words, the states have never authorized the corrupt feds to establish most of the other vote-winning federal government services that many low-information citizens are now dependent on.
The ill-conceived 17th Amendment needs to disappear.
Oh yeah, THAT Lindsay Graham - he who is polling at 0%. Way to go LG!
A government “shutdown” does not endanger national security, hello, Obama just closes parks and hires guards to keep people away from memorials.
Shouldn’t this be announced by Boehner and it isn’t shutting down the government, but defunding the abortion mills?
0% is much too high
Was he at the Clinton library?
We need to do some housecleaning. Baby killers must be deprived of both their business and the voting franchise . . . . summarily.
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