During a speech in South Carolina Wednesday, Donald Trump gave out the personal cell phone number of fellow presidential candidate and South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham.
Trump gave it out one day after Graham called the real estate tycoon a “jackass” over his Saturday comments about Sen. John McCain only being a war hero because he was “captured,” adding earlier in the speech that Graham is a “lightweight.”
“He gets out — he’s out there, and he calls me a jackass. I’m trying to be nice. I’m working hard to be nice, but every time I turn on [the TV], I have some guy that is hitting me like hard,” Trump told the Sun City, S.C. crowd. “Now, the reason they’re hitting me, in all fairness, is when you register zero in the poll, what the hell, they have nothing to lose.”
“But this guy Lindsey Graham calls me a jackass this morning. And I said to myself, you know, ‘it’s amazing, he doesn’t seem like a very bright guy.’ Okay. He actually, probably seems to me not as bright, honestly, as Rick Perry. I think Rick Perry is probably smarter than Lindsey Graham, but what do I know.”
In the latest national poll released Tuesday, Trump leads with 24 percent support, followed by Scott Walker and Jeb Bush with 13 and 12 percent, respectively. Graham did not register in the poll. Graham, however, led in the most recent South Carolina poll, although there has not been one taken since early June.
“And then I said to myself, ‘Hey didn’t this guy call me like four years ago?’ Yes. He called me three — three, four years ago. Lindsey Graham, I didn’t even know who he was. He goes, ‘Mr. Trump, this is Sen. Lindsey Graham. I wonder if it would be possible for you to call Fox,’ because, you know, until I ran I had that little thing I’d do. Fox & Friends is so great,” Trump said rattling off the hosts of the show. “They’re great people. Right? They’re great. And he wanted to know whether or not I could give him a good reference on Fox & Friends. I said okay. He wanted to know would I do that. And then, of course, he wanted to know whether or not he could come see me for some campaign contributions.”
“So Lindsey Graham says to me ‘please, please — whatever you can do.’ You know, I’m saying to myself ‘he’s like begging me to help him with Fox & Friends.’ So I say, ‘okay, and I’ll mention your name,” Trump said. “And he gave me his number, and I found the card. I wrote the number down. I don’t know if it’s the right number, let’s try it,” Trump said before reading the number aloud. “You know, it’s three, four years ago, so maybe it’s an old number. So, you know, give it a shot.”
“Your local politician. You know, he won’t fix anything, but at least he’ll talk to you,” Trump said delivering his parting shot at Graham.
Graham’s campaign manger Christian Ferry issued a statement in response to Trump reading out of the home state senator’s cell phone number soon after the event ended:
Donald Trump continues to show hourly that he is ill-prepared to be commander in chief. The two people most excited about Donald Trump’s candidacy are Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Because of Trump’s bombastic and ridiculous campaign, we aren’t talking about Obama’s horrible deal with Iran or Hillary Clinton’s plans to continue Obama’s failed national security.