Sen. Lindsey Graham continued his attacks on billionaire businessman and GOP presidential rival Donald Trump on Sunday, saying Trump is using demagoguery to achieve his high presidential poll numbers.
Trump has "created a defining moment for all candidates,"
Graham said Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union."
"There are some candidates who agree with Donald Trump, that want to make him their vice president. There are some people who love Donald Trump and say that he's speaking the truth," Graham said. "What I think he's doing is being a demagogue. I think he's a wrecking ball for the future of the Republican Party with the Hispanic community and we need to push back."
Graham said that while the shooting death of 32-year-old Kate Steinle in San Francisco by an illegal immigrant was a tragedy, Trump doesn't really understand the issue of illegal immigrants, as evidenced by his June entry into the presidential race when he referred to illegal Mexican immigrants as mostly criminals.
Trump has said he won't run third party if he fails to get the GOP nomination, but Graham said Republicans can't worry about that even if he did threaten to do so.
"We can't worry about what Donald Trump might do. We have to focus on what we should do," he said. "And as a party, we should reject what he says because it's not true. And if we don't reject it we've lost the moral authority, in my view, to govern this country."
Graham said he's been working on the illegal immigration problem for a decade, and has determined that most illegal immigrants are decent, hard-working people, "and some are criminals."
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus did the right thing in asking Trump to tone down his rhetoric on illegal immigrants, Graham said, and every Republican needs to join him.
"We have quite the opposite view that this is a hard problem that needs to be solved," he said. "If we can't get this right, then we're going to keep digging a hole and it's going to cost us the 2016 election at a time when we could win."
Graham also addressed the Iran nuclear talks, saying he would keep the interim deal in place and allow a new president to try to close the deal.
"The interim deal has worked better than I thought it would. Hats off to John Kerry," Graham said. "I think the best thing for the world and our country is to let a new president have a chance to conclude the deal with Iran, because Obama's so weak in the eyes of the Iranians and our friends at large."
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