Lindsey Graham: Dems Must ‘Park Their Hatred’ of Trump, ‘Put the Country First’

Thursday on the “The Hugh Hewitt Show,” while discussing the threat of North Korea, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said Democrats “have to park their hatred of Donald Trump and put the country first.”

Partial transcript as follows:

HEWITT: Senator Graham, in terms of the national security team, would it be helpful if they had some Democratic senators join you in being as specific, measured and calm?

GRAHAM: Yes.

HEWITT: Because I’ve not heard from one Democrat for political reasons step up and talk about a national problem, a national crisis.

GRAHAM: It’s fair to say that I push back on President Trump when I don’t agree with him.

HEWITT: Yes, you do.

GRAHAM: It’s fair to say. It’s fair to say. I think as commander-in-chief, he understands North Korea very well. He’s got the right attitude, and the attitude is to deny them the capability to hit the American homeland. Senator Feinstein is a very good friend. I think she is espousing an attitude that got us in this mess, the attitude of capitulation. We can’t afford to capitulate here. We capitulated in the past to evil people, and always lived to regret it. This is a circumstance that you cannot accommodate. It is unacceptable from my point of view to give the North Korean leader the ability to strike America.

I don’t want to live in a world like that. He will continue to grow his capability. Nobody is in their right mind believes he’s going to stop until somebody makes him stop, and that somebody will be China and the world community. I wish a Democrat would take their hatred of Donald Trump and park it and realize that on Donald Trump’s watch, because of everyone else’s failure, he’s run out of the ability to kick the can down the road. Now the role of Congress, my good friend, Dan Sullivan, has a missile defense plan that I completely support. But he said publicly the President must have authorization from the Congress to use military force to stop a threat emerging from North Korea to the homeland.

I violently disagree. Only Congress can declare war. There’s nothing in the Constitution limiting the ability to use force to protect America. Having said that, it would be very smart if the Congress could come together and tell the President you have our authorization to use military force to stop the threat to the homeland as a last resort. That would send a signal to North Korea and China that would probably do more good to avoid war than anything I can think of. And to accomplish that task, our Democratic friends would have to park their hatred of Donald Trump and put the country first.

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