Likely presidential candidate Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said on Friday that he learned how to spot liars as a kid, and these days, Iranians don’t pass his smell test.
“Everything I know about the Iranians I learned in the pool room,” Graham said, during a video address to the Southern Republican Leadership Conference, referencing his time working in a bar.
“I ran the pool room when I was a kid and I met a lot of liars, and I know the Iranians are liars,” he added.
Later on, Graham criticized the Obama administration’s negotiations with Iran and got more specific, attacking the Iranian “regime.”
“The Iranians cheat and they lie. They are a radical regime,” he said. “They want a master religion for the world; the Nazis wanted a master race.”
On Sunday, the National Iranian-American Council slammed Graham for his “racist, anti-Iranian remarks,” demanded an apology, and posted a petition calling for the senator to retract the comment.
Graham made headlines earlier this month for other remarks on national security; at an AIPAC dinner he said that “everything that starts with ‘al’ in the Middle East is bad news,” referencing the Arabic word for “the.”
Later in the month, he laughed as he told Iowa Republicans that he would drone any American who thought about joining the Islamic State, mocking the idea of “calling a judge.”
“Next time you vote for President of the United States,” Graham said on Friday, “make sure that you’re voting for a commander-in-chief that knows what the hell they’re doing.”
Watch Graham’s address below, at the 2:00 mark:
