Lindsey Graham on Donald Trump: I Think Half Of This Is An Act!

KILMEADE: Do you believe that he is coachable? Do you think that he knows more than he lets on?

GRAHAM: I think half of this is an act. I think that Ted Cruz is a man who has lost. He is trying to be an isolationist when that’s hot. He’s trying to be a Lindsey Graham-type when that’s hot. I think Donald Trump, quite frankly, is coachable. I don’t like what he is saying, I’ve been hard on him, but I do believe that if you can convince him that we need more American troops in Iraq because the Generals are smart and say we do, and if you can convince him that a regional army in Syria is required to destroy the caliphate and we have to be part of it, I think he would go there.

KILMEADE: That’s interesting that you think it is an act. After six months you think it’s an act?

GRAHAM: I think some of it is just saying the strong man, you know, I’m going to kill everything and everybody therefore I’m strong, you know, I’m going to execute Bergdahl. Well, here’s what I am trying to say to Donald Trump, ‘You’re running to be President of the United States, the strongest voice in the world, you need to embrace our values to win this war, you need to be tough. You need to be able to articulate a plan to kill radical Islamists before they strike our homeland, but you need to understand partnerships are required. So the bottom line here is he’s undercutting the war effort, but I do believe, quite frankly, that he is more open minded than he appears to be. I maybe wrong.

GRAHAM: Well, it is nice, but here is what’s really nice. That 1% of the country served in uniform just to protect the rest of us. For 33 years I’ve been a member of the Air Force and I’ve walked in their shoes, I am not a combat soldier, but we’re lucky to have those in the diplomatic corp in the military that are willing to go over there an fight. There are four top lines and I will let you go: we’re in a religious war between radical Islam and the world, we have to partner with the world of people in the faith to destroy radical Islam, you have to hit them before they hit you – they don’t mind dying, I want the war in their backyard not ours, we’ve got to be determined to have the will to win with a plan. Those are the four takeaways after 36 visits to the region. Obama doesn’t have the strategy to win. I do. People are coming my way. I am a hawk with a heart. I want to kill terrorists but I also want to nurture others that we live in peace with.