Story highlights
Graham: Cruz maybe worse than Obama on foreign policy
Says Cruz will "run down" his GOP colleagues to succeed
How much does Lindsey Graham dislike Ted Cruz? Count the ways.
On the question of foreign policy, the Texas senator is “just as wrong as Obama, if not worse,” Graham told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on Thursday.
“In Ted Cruz’s world, dictators do very well,” he continued, comparing his colleague’s foreign policy to that of Ron Paul, the former congressman, Republican presidential candidate and long-time leading libertarian.
Asked why his fellow senators are reputed to have such a distaste for Cruz, Graham accused the winner of the Iowa GOP caucuses of being an “opportunist” to his core – one who “gets ahead at our expense” and will “run down other Republicans” to advance his own ambitions.
Not that Graham – who has endorsed Jeb Bush – is warming to Donald Trump, whose foreign policy prescriptions he described as “gibberish.”
“I don’t know if anybody’s worse than Trump,” Graham told Blitzer, rolling out a familiar burn: “If you’re a Republican and your choice is Donald Trump and Ted Cruz in a general election,” he said, “it’s the difference between poisoned or shot – you’re still dead.”
What about a potential independent run by Michael Bloomberg?
Graham rejected the billionaire former New York City mayor – who is considering a third-party run for president – out of hand.
“I’m gonna support the Republican nominee,” Graham said, and if it’s Trump or Cruz, “I’m gonna buy a ticket on the Titanic.”
Asked who, of the three highest-finishing GOP candidates in Iowa, he preferred, Graham chose Marco Rubio.
“Marco,” he said, “has a worldview consistent with reason and reality versus the other two.”