Posted on 12/03/2015 6:19:10 PM PST by VinL
Lindsey Graham on Thursday delivered a scathing rebuke of Republican candidates.. especially Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Donald Trump ..for alienating Hispanic and female voters with "hard-ass" policies and hateful rhetoric.
"How many of you believe that we’re losing elections because we're not hard-ass enough on immigration?" Graham asked during his speech to the Republican Jewish Coalition in Washington, D.C.
A few people in the room clapped, and Graham responded: "Well, I don’t agree with you. I believe we are losing the Hispanic vote because they think we don't like them"â€
Graham hit back hard on the Texas Republican senator's remarks that opened the RJC forum, during which Cruz argued that the Republican Party would never beat Democratic front runner Hillary Clinton with a moderate or centrist nominee. As part of his answer to a question on how to sway pro choice voters to support him in the general election, Cruz mentioned the need to turn out more evangelical voters.
"I believe that it is not about turning out evangelical Christians," Graham said. "It is about repairing the damage done by incredibly hateful rhetoric driving a wall between us and the fastest-growing demographic in America, who should be Republicans."
Graham’s speech wasn't the one he planned, he said .. he had intended to talk about his most recent trip to Iraq and his foreign policy strategy.
"I’ll get there in a minute," he said, "but after Mr. Cruz, I want to talk to you about winning an election."
Cruz's strategy of playing to the conservative base is setting the party up for oblivion, Graham said. Instead, Republicans should focus on bringing new voters into the fold, he said.
"It's about looking the Hispanic American in the eye and saying, 'We get it. You're pro-life, you're entrepreneurial, you're hard working, you're very patriotic,'" Graham said. "'Be part of our cause.'"
He also knocked Republican voters for letting leading candidates off the hook for inflammatory statements. "Do you want to win this election?" Graham asked the crowd. "Well, start taking everything that we say seriously.. and push back when we make absolutely no sense."
Graham took aim at businessman Donald Trump for his tone on illegal immigration, arguing that he’s pushing voters away from the Republican party. "I believe Donald Trump is destroying Republicans' chance to win an election that we can’t afford to lose," Graham said.
Mitt Romney made a mistake when promoting the idea of self deportation as a presidential candidate, Graham said. And now, Trump has taken the idea even farther, he added.
"Now it's not self deportation, it's forced deportation," Graham continued. "We're literally going to round them up. That sound familiar to you? Every one of them, including their American citizen children. That's the leader of the Republican Party."
Many in the Republican Party have a problem with female voters because of their stances on abortion, Graham argued.. for example, not allowing an exception in cases of rape or incest alienates most Americans, he said. "If the nominee of the Republican party will not allow for an exception for rape and incest, they will not win,†he said. "Ted Cruz doesn’t have an exception for rape or incest."
The general election will become a debate about abortion .. rather than the threat from the Islamic State or other foreign policy concerns.. if that's the nominee's stance, Graham said.
"It will be about the nominee of the Republican Party telling a woman who's been raped, you’ve got to carry the child of the rapist," Graham said. "Good luck with that."
At this point, Graham noted that he hadn't planned to go after Cruz and Trump, but he felt the need to react to Cruz's speech.
"Not the speech you thought you were going to hear, right? Not the speech I thought I was going to give," Graham said. "But he didn't answer the question. … I am going to answer the question: We will lose if that's the position of the nominee of the Republican Party. We will lose young women in droves."
Says the guy who can’t register on the polls. Get lost Lindseed.
Well, Lindsey, we’d rather be RIGHT than President.
Lindthey was thcathing.
I will vote for the Republican candidate; there are things I like about each of them. However, I especially like Trump and Cruz, because they say things I wanted to hear the last two Republican presidential candidates say, and things I was sorry “GW” never addressed. Obviously I am more Tea Partier than some, but whether or not the big following Trump has developed translates into electability ultimately, a larger core of genuinely conservative voters in both parties is being revealed. Senator Graham may have a point, or maybe not. Both McCain and Romney were within the margin of error of beating Obama, and I daresay that if they had expressed conservative views more articulately and forcefully on immigration control and the nature of the El Queada/ISIS threat and the rampant duplicity of the Middle Eastern countries, either one of them might have stumbled into office and spared this country all the miseries of the Obama era.
FULG....you light in the loafers moron!
How dense is he??? HE is the one drawing about zero percent of the vote and he believes that HE is in a position to lecture them about what it takes to win???? He has to be the dumbest person in the running if he doesn’t see the irony (or idiocy) in this.
Ahh, go back to your Washington bathhouse, towel boy.
LOL...good play, re “I’D RATHER BE RIGHT” the play, with George M. Cohan. :-)
What a total ass he is!
Gee, I forgot that RINOs Dole, McCain and Romney were elected President. LOL.
That Funny!
If anyone is an expert at losing it’s Lindsey.
If it came to it, I’d rather lose with dignity intact, than die the death of a pandering, simpering, coward.
And somehow the idiot people in that state keep re-electing Linda Graham. Unbelievable.
Cruz has my complete support and my vote. He has opened my eyes to the fact that the GOPe are every bit as dangerous as the liberals. Lindsey is part of the Washington Cartel that needs to be swept away.
LoL Lindsey talks like a loser. You hang in there Linda until the South Carolina primary. I want to see by how much you lose it.
God bless Ted Cruz!
And I’m ashamed to say that Flimsey Tinkerbelle Grahamnesty is one of the senators of my state.
Not only is (s)he an evil RINO, but now has gone completely nucking futs.
Linda....go soak your head.
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