Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) warned Republicans that Donald Trump’s full-throated attacks on a federal judge’s “Mexican” heritage threatened their fate in the November election and beyond.
“This is the most un-American thing from a politician since Joe McCarthy,” Graham said in New York Times story published Tuesday.
“If anybody was looking for an off-ramp, this is probably it,” he continued. “There’ll come a time when the love of country will trump hatred of Hillary.”
Graham’s comments suggest that those who endorsed Trump can use this racially-charged line of attack as an opportunity to denounce his campaign. The South Carolina senator, who has been a vocal critic of Trump throughout the 2016 race, offered no comment on what the GOP would do if party leaders denounced their own nominee.
Trump himself seems unconcerned by the overwhelmingly negative response to his aggressive criticism of U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel. In a Monday call with surrogates, he reportedly urged his surrogates to “go at” reporters questioning them about a lawsuit involving Trump University and his attacks on Curiel.
“The people asking the questions—those are the racists,” Trump said, as quoted by Bloomberg Politics. “I would go at ’em.”
Ugh. The thought of Lindsey Graham leading “Republicans for Hillary” makes my stomach turn…
“What a loser. He got 1% of the vote. I crushed him. He’s a nothing. A real nasty guy. And a loser.”
Yeah, me, too. But sadly, c.c., ideologically they are pretty close. Other than women’s issues, not a lot of space between them.
How long can loyalists maintain this political Heimlich maneuver before the victim succumbs?
“There’ll come a time when the love of country will trump hatred of Hillary.”
Doubtful. Republicans have been trained over 30 years to always put party before country.