Free Republic

Republican presidential candidate Lindsey Graham is dropping out of the 2016 race for the White House. The South Carolina senator, who revealed the news in a CNN interview Monday morning, is the fourth GOP contender to drop out of the race, following Texas Gov. Rick Perry, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal. The move leaves 13 candidates remaining in the race for the Republican nod.

Madness has gripped a segment of the Republican Party that embraces a war on its own voters as unworthy. Instead of blaming himself for a presidential campaign mired at the one percent level of support, failing to make a ripple even in his home state of South Carolina, Senator Lindsey Graham blames the GOP voters who are too driven by irrational, probably racist beliefs. Caitlin Yilek of The Hill reports: Republican presidential candidate Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) says GOP front-runner Donald Trump is doing so well in the polls because nearly half of Republican primary voters think President Obama is...

He also calls the GOP frontrunner a "loser" and a "demagogue."EXETER, N.H. -- As he continues to find new ways to rip into Donald Trump over the Republican front-runner’s proposal to ban Muslims from traveling to the United States, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham may have finally unleashed the ultimate insult to denigrate his rival in the context of a GOP presidential primary. Graham, who has struggled to gain traction in his own long-shot White House bid, said that what makes America great is its religious tolerance, and that Trump’s plan undercuts outreach efforts to Muslim nations and communities in...

Republican presidential candidate Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) says GOP front-runner Donald Trump is doing so well in the polls because nearly half of Republican primary voters think President Obama is a Kenyan-born Muslim. “Well there’s about 40 percent of the Republican primary voter who believes that Obama was born in Kenya and is a Muslim,” Graham told Boston Herald Radio on Friday, according to BuzzFeed News. “There’s just a dislike for President Obama that is visceral. It’s almost irrational,” Graham added. Graham said Trump will not get 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency if he doesn’t grow support...

South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham said his presidential opponent Donald Trump is leading in the polls because nearly half of Republican primary voters hate Obama and think he is a Kenyan-born Muslim. “Well there’s about 40% of the Republican primary voter who believes that Obama was born in Kenya and is a Muslim,” Graham said on Boston Herald Radio on Friday. “There’s just a dislike for President Obama that is visceral. It’s almost irrational.” “I could promise you this, he’s not gonna win 270 electoral votes,” Graham said, citing Trump’s inability to grow the vote with the Hispanic community. “I...

Presidential candidate Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) took a bold step away from many in the pro-life camp Thursday when taking aim at his rival for the White House, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), over his allegedly extreme stance against abortion.The South Carolina senator indicated that taking a hardline pro-life stance, in essence, will preclude any presidential candidate from winning the 2016 election. “You can be pro-life and win an election, but if you’re going to tell a woman who’s been raped she has to carry the child of the rapist, you’re losing most Americans,” Graham argued. The 60-year-old GOP member took specific...

South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham says he cannot fathom how real estate magnate Donald Trump and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson are dominating the GOP presidential primaries. Graham provided cutting assessments of their lack of political experience, foreign policies and overall temperaments during a wide-ranging interview on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” Monday. “On our side, you’ve got the No. 2 guy [who] tried to kill someone at 14, and the No. 1 is high energy and crazy as hell. How am I losing to these people?” he said.

It's John Boehner, who announced his plans to resign as Speaker of the House on Friday. Caught by some reporters following his speech at the conservative “Values Voters Summit” in Washington, D.C. Saturday, the South Carolina senator was both hopeful and concerned about the aftermath of Boehner’s decision. “It’s a fresh start, and what’s the goal here? The goal here is to move the needle,” he said. “I hope we can have a relationship with the new Speaker that will allow us not to shut down the government, keep the conservative agenda alive, and focus on winning in 2016.” ......

Republican presidential candidate and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) told American Muslims on Fox Monday that, despite what GOP rival Ben Carson said, it was their country too. Carson, a retired neurosurgeon, was asked on Sunday by NBC host Chuck Todd if a President's faith mattered — and whether he thought Islam was consistent with the Constitution. "I would not advocate that we put a Muslim in charge of this nation," Carson told Todd. On Fox, Graham noted that he had served with American Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan. "So, I want to let every American Muslim serving in uniform know...

Tuesday on CNN’s “At This Hour” Republican presidential candidate Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said Republican front-runner Donald Trump’s calls for the deportation of the 11 million illegal immigrants and their American citizen children is “Joseph McCarthy-like” and “illegal” and he added, “he’s a complete idiot when it comes to Middle East Policy” so if he is the nominee the GOP will “lose, and we should lose.” Graham said, “Well, I think Donald Trump’s pretty much an idiot on policy and Jeb Bush is a good man. What Jeb was talking about is birth right tourism. Millionaires from China and other...

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) expressed concern Sunday that the Republicans’ leading candidate for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination is going down the wrong road on immigration reform. Graham said that Donald Trump is embracing self-deportation that calls for all 11 million illegal immigrants to walk back to where they came from and “maybe we’ll let some of them come back.” “But I hope we don’t go down that road as a party,” Graham told CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “So the leading contender Mr. Trump is going backward on immigration and I think he will take us all with him if...

LITTLETON, N.H. — Former GOP presidential candidate Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) was in his element Saturday — giving hugs, posing for pictures and shaking hands beside an oversized picnic pavilion at the Veterans of Foreign Wars post here in Littleton. He was asking Granite Staters for their votes in the first-in-the-nation primary. But this time, not for himself. “Lindsey Graham, he’s my man!” McCain declared with a chuckle,...

Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton said on Tuesday the entire 2016 GOP presidential field opposed a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. Not so, cried South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham. On Wednesday, Mr. Graham said he still backs the 2013 Senate immigration bill he helped pass, which included a path to citizenship, enhanced border security, and other measures. It died in the Republican-led House of Representatives. Then Mr. Graham added an unsolicited shot at fellow Republican Donald Trump. “I’m for a pathway to citizenship,” Mr. Graham said in an interview with Wall Street Journal reporters and editors.

Likely Republican presidential candidate Sen. Lindsey Graham predicted Thursday that the GOP will lose the 2016 presidential election unless they win over Hispanic voters by supporting a “long, hard path to citizenship.” “If I were president of the United States, I would veto any bill that did not have a pathway to citizenship,” the South Carolina Republican told USA Today. “You would have a long, hard path to citizenship … but I want to create that path because I don’t like the idea of millions of people living in America for the rest of their lives being the hired help....

The House Armed Services Committee approved an amendment, offered by Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), on Wednesday to the National Defense Authorization Act of 2016 that affirms Pres. Obama's unconstitutional 2012 DACA amnesty. The amendment was narrowly approved 33-to-30 by the Committee, mostly along party lines, but with enough GOP support to pass. The amendment expressed that it's the sense of Congress to encourage the Secretary of Defense to waive military enlistment requirements for illegal aliens who receive Pres. Obama's DACA amnesty. DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) grants amnesty and work permits to illegal aliens who would have qualified for...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Potential Republican presidential candidate Sen. Lindsey Graham has "no doubt" that President Obama loves his country, refuting comments made by former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani earlier this week. “Well, I love Rudy, but I don’t want to go there. The nation’s very divided. President Obama has divided us more than he’s brought us together and I don’t want to add to that division,” Graham initially said on ABC's "This Week" today, before adding, “I have no doubt that he loves his country. I have no doubt that he’s a patriot. But his primary job as president of the United...

Potential presidential contender Lindsey Graham thinks he can appeal to typically right-skewed Republican presidential primary voters, despite non-conservative views on immigration, climate change and federal spending. Graham, a Republican senator representing South Carolina, is serious about his recently declared interest in entering the already packed 2016 GOP field, even while the move has left the political punditry puzzled. On Thursday, Graham announced the launch of a formal exploratory committee, “Security through Strength,” to determine, he said, if he can enter the race with a viable campaign. Graham last week began selling his candidacy on Capitol Hill, telling reporters if he...

Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina has set up a committee he says will help him look beyond his home state to determine if he might have a “viable path” to the Republican presidential nomination. […] Graham said in December he was thinking about seeking the GOP nomination. He has been a close ally of Sen. John McCain of Arizona, Republicans’ presidential nominee in 2008. …

Er … yeah. I hadn’t thought of it that way. The time for talk is over. The time for amnesty has begun. It’s so crazy it just. might. work. Graham, along with Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), met with Obama to update him on their efforts to advance immigration reform legislation. During the meeting, Graham said he made it clear to the president that the already difficult task of passing immigration reform becomes even harder when reconciliation is in play. “I expressed, in no uncertain terms, my belief that immigration reform could come to a halt for the year if health...

South Carolina GOP Senator Lindsey Graham is thinking about running for president. Graham told The Weekly Standard in a lengthy interview that he isn’t crazy about other potential Republican candidates’ positions, and that he’s been encouraged by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) to consider entering the race for the GOP presidential nomination. “I’ve strongly encouraged him to give it a look,” McCain told the Standard. “I think Lindsey has vast and deep experience on these issues that very few others have. I happen to like a lot of these guys—I like Jeb Bush, Chris Christie. Ted Cruz has gone out of...