U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-SC, took his dark horse presidential effort to Florida on Friday as he spoke at the Republican Party of Florida’s (RPOF) Sunshine Summit.
As he has during his presidential bid, Graham focused on foreign affairs, hitting President Barack Obama and former U.S. Sec. of State Hillary Clinton, the favorite for the Democratic nomination, for their handling of the Benghazi terrorist attacks in 2012.
“The last thing you want to do is continue the foreign policy of Barack Obama,” Graham said before turning his fire to Clinton. “The worst possible outcome is to promote Hillary Clinton,because when people needed her, she should have had their backs, but she was not there.”
Hitting the Iranian leadership as “religious Nazis," Graham called out Obama’s deal with Iran over its nuclear policy. “I don’t want a war with Iran, I just don’t ever want the most radical, religious extremist nation in the region to acquire nuclear weapons and use them on Israel before coming after us.”
During his speech, Graham also called for the GOP to reach out to minority voters and insisted Obama gave Republicans an opportunity with these voters.
“President Obama has been a lousy president for people of color,” Graham said. "To those who say Republicans have to be socially liberal to win elections, you don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Graham insisted Hispanics were the “most pro-life demographic in all of America" while African-Americans support “traditional marriage the most.”
Despite his criticism of Obama, when a member of the audience called the president a “traitor,” the South Carolina senator disagreed.
“He’s not a traitor,” Graham said of Obama. “He just doesn’t know what he’s doing.”
Graham won solid reviews for his performances in the second and third undercard debates but his bid has stalled. In this week’s fourth round of Republican debates Graham’s poll numbers were so low that he was excluded from even the debate with the lower tier candidates.
Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com or follow him on Twitter: @KevinDerbySSN
