The GOP's hopes of recapturing the White House next year are dead in the water if Donald Trump wins the Republican nomination because he's "bad for business," Sen. Lindsey Graham tells
Newsmax TV.
"If he did, that's the end of our chances," Graham, a South Carolina Republican and GOP presidential candidate, said Thursday on "The Steve Malzberg Show."
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"If we do [choose him], we'll lose."
Graham believes Trump's controversial stances — his mission to prove President Barack Obama wasn't born in Hawaii, his crack about illegal immigrants from Mexico being criminals, saying Sen. John McCain is not a war hero — have doomed the billionaire developer.
"I don't believe you're going to elect a man president of the United States who spent thousands of his own dollars, he claims, trying to find out if Obama was born in Kenya," Graham said.
"I don't think you're going to elect a man president of the United States who's basically said most illegal immigrants are drug dealers and rapists, who slandered veterans like Sen. McCain."
Graham pointed to a number of companies that severed business ties with Trump after his remarks about immigrants — including NBC, Univision, Macy's and Serta, the latter which sold Trump Home-branded mattresses,.
"I just don't believe he's marketable. Why are all the major companies that he has endorsed products for firing him? Here's what I would say to the Republican Party. You're about to hire somebody that everybody else is firing," Graham told Steve Malzberg.
"Why is Serta and every other major company dropping Donald Trump? Because he's bad for business."
Graham, of course, has a sizable ax to grind with Trump. After Graham told Trump to "stop being a jackass," in reference to his remarks about McCain, Trump retaliated by revealing the senator's private cellphone number at a private event.
Graham responded with a tweet demonstrating the many ways he could destroy the flip phone associated with the compromised number.
Graham and Trump are also at opposite ends of the spectrum in the latest polls.
According to a Quinnipiac University poll conducted July 23-28, Trump leads the GOP pack with 20 percent, well ahead of second-place Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and third-place former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. Graham, former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum are all at the bottom of the poll, with 1 percent each.
Graham has a different take on Trump's staying power.
"When you look at the swing state polls for Bush and Marco [Rubio] — and everybody beats Hillary [Clinton] — 60 percent of the people in those [states] … Iowa, Colorado … say they would never vote for Donald Trump," Graham said.
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