BOULDER, Colo.– [crscore]Lindsey Graham[/crscore] may register as little more than a blip in the presidential polls, but he doesn’t sound like a man — or candidate — dejected.
On Tuesday night before the third Republican presidential debate, the South Carolina senator participated in an interview with Dana Bash as part of CNN’s “Politics on Tap” series, where he elicited a bundle of laughs from an audience of college Republicans and journalists at a local bar. (RELATED: Graham Plays ‘F**k, Marry, Kill’ With Palin, Fiorina, Clinton)
As he left the event, he spoke with The Daily Caller about the state of the Republican Party, Donald Trump, the Middle East and why he is still in the race:
The Daily Caller (TheDC): Let’s start with the obvious question everyone is dying to know: If you’re the nominee, would you consider Donald Trump for your VP?
Graham: No.
TheDC: More seriously, what’s your rational for staying in the race when you’re at two percent in one recent poll in your home state of South Carolina?
Graham: For one, that poll’s a bunch of garbage, the YouGov deal. The bottom line is, people in South Carolina are not going to look at me as a viable candidate until I show viability outside of South Carolina. If I do well in New Hampshire we will absolutely wipe them out in South Carolina. Trust me on that. We’ve got to do well outside of South Carolina.
TheDC: How do you assess the state of the Republican Party when people like [crscore]Paul Ryan[/crscore] are considered by segments of the base to not be true conservatives?
Graham: We’ve got this dynamic going on in both parties, right? You know, Bernie’s dragging the [Democratic] Party to the left. There’s some people on our side — you know, conservatism. Ronald Reagan wouldn’t meet the test for some of these folks. So I don’t equate what they’re doing with the conservatism. At the end of the day Paul Ryan is a conservative by any rational definition. Some of the people who are objecting to Paul Ryan have lost their way in terms of what conservatism’s all about. Conservatism is an approach to government that will allow the country to move forward in a limited-government fashion but that means there’s got to be the ability to run the government. So Paul Ryan is a true conservative in the best sense of the word and a lot of his critics have lost their way in terms of what conservatism’s all about.
TheDC: People look at the Middle East and see what’s going on in Iraq and Libya, even Afghanistan, and wonder whether the idea of implanting democracy abroad is possible in the Middle East. Someone like [crscore]Ted Cruz[/crscore] might say that maybe democracy is not right for the Middle East at this point in history.
Graham: All that I can say is that representative government is good. That choosing your own leaders is good. Being able to go to court where you’re judged based on what you’re accused of, not your tribe or your religious background, is good. See, I’ve been to the Mid-East 35 times, Iraq and Afghanistan. I know that most young people over there want many of the same things we want here. So I don’t have this arrogant view that democracy’s somehow reserved just for us. So here’s what I believe. I believe that most people are not buying what ISIL’s selling. That very few mothers and fathers want to turn their daughters over to ISIL. This is an outlier in the religion. And Iraq was in a good spot and Senator Cruz doesn’t understand that, he hasn’t spent any time studying the issue. The [Iraq] surge did work.
TheDC: Is it possible that it would have been better for America, at least in the short term, if Gaddafi was still in power in Libya?
Graham: Absolutely not. For anybody wanting to be President of the United States to say, “I yearn for a dictator to come back,” you’ve lost your way. We’re the voice of freedom. Gaddafi. Would you want to live in Gaddafi’s Libya? I wouldn’t. I will never ask a young person to live in a dictatorship for my convenience. So we’re Americans. It is our job to lead the free world. At the end of the day I’m a practical kind of guy, but when Trump and Cruz and these other guys talk about “just leave the world alone. God, I wish the dictators were back.” You go over to the Mid-East and see if you’d want to live there.
TheDC: If Donald Trump is the nominee against Hillary Clinton, could you vote for Donald Trump for president?
Graham: I’m going to vote for the Republican nominee. If it’s Donald Trump, I will support the nominee but he’ll get creamed.
This interview has been slightly edited for brevity and clarity.