Lindsey Graham Wins GOP Undercard Debate

Las Vegas — After dominating the stage with one-liners during a gloomy undercard debate here, Lindsey Graham told reporters that his low-polling competitors should drop out of the race — but he insisted that he’s not going anywhere until the February 9 New Hampshire primary.

Graham used the debate, as well as a marathon question-and-answer session with reporters afterward, to bash Donald Trump as an unelectable demagogue doing lasting damage to the Republican party. And while Graham seemed to acknowledge that he and the other candidates polling in single digits are actually helping Trump by staying in the race and slowing the emergence of an alternative, he ruled out an early exit from the race.

“I think what will happen — in my case, it’s New Hampshire,” Graham said. “If I can’t do well in New Hampshire, I’ll have to reevaluate.” Pressed on what “well” means, Graham said he has to finish “in the top tier,” meaning a “top-three or top-four finish.”

He added, “If I don’t do well in New Hampshire, I’ll reevaluate and get out and help somebody else.”

His comments came on the heels of a sluggish, nearly two-hour debate featuring three other candidates — Mike Huckabee, Rick Santorum, and George Pataki — who failed to qualify for the prime time debate. The session was dominated by talk of terrorism and Trump’s prescription for halting Muslim immigration into the U.S. The candidates, none of whom are remotely positioned to capture the GOP nomination, delivered mostly tired, uninspired performances.

Graham, as he had been in previous undercard debates, was the exception.

Graham painted himself as the only person in the race prepared to be a wartime president.

With emotion in his voice and visible disgust on his face when listening to his competitors, the South Carolina senator reminded viewers that he has visited the Middle East 36 times and has long called for sending American troops to the region to combat ISIS. Touting his own experience as a military lawyer, Graham painted himself as the only person in the race prepared to be a wartime president.

He argued that he belongs on the main debate stage, and he debated as though he were on it, punching up at candidates polling far ahead of him.

“He does not represent us,” Graham said of Trump, whom the senator bashed as unprepared and unserious throughout. At one point, after rebuking the real-estate mogul’s rhetoric, he advised him, “Up your game.”

#share#Graham apologized for Trump’s proposal to ban Muslims from entering the U.S. and later pointed out that more than 3,500 Muslims serve in the U.S. military, thanking them for their service and telling them, “You are not our enemy.”

Graham’s attacks weren’t limited to Trump. He repeatedly jabbed senators Ted Cruz and Rand Paul as “isolationists” and said of them at one point, “You are no better than Obama.”

In perhaps the single most amusing moment of the debate, Graham went after Cruz using references to Cruz’s favorite movie, The Princess Bride.

“Ted, getting in bed with Iran and Russia to save Assad is inconceivable,” Graham said. “Princess Buttercup would not like this.”

Graham said of Russian president Vladimir Putin: ‘I’m not afraid of a guy riding around on a horse without a shirt.’

It was a repeat of past debate performances in which Graham distinguished himself with bizarre one-liners as well as tough talk on national security. He combined the two on several occasions Tuesday night, saying of Russian president Vladimir Putin, “I’m not afraid of a guy riding around on a horse without a shirt.”

The other candidates were unremarkable in their performances — disagreeing on the periphery of certain issues but largely sticking to well-worn talking points — and showed no interest in competing with Graham’s quips.

#related#Glaring up at the three other candidates on the stage who towered over his 5-foot-7 form, Graham declared himself the toughest and the most prepared candidate to handle the growing chorus of global threats.

“If I’m president of the United States, and you join ISIL, you are going to get killed or captured. And the last thing you are going to hear if I’m president is, ‘You’ve got a right to remain silent.’”