South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham said Monday he’ll announce his presidential plans June 1 — but seemed to have already made up his mind.
“You’re all invited to come — spend money when you do — and I will tell you what I’m going to do about running for president,” Graham said, teasing an announcement in “beautiful” central South Carolina at the beginning of next month on CBS “This Morning.”
Graham has made no secret of his interest in the race and has been traveling to early primary states to gauge interest in a potential bid. He’s widely expected to jump into the ever-expanding Republican presidential field, and seemed to confirm that suspicion in responding to a question on whether he’s running because the rest of the field is lacking in foreign policy experience.
“I’m running,” he said, “because I think the world is falling apart. I’ve been more right than wrong on foreign policy.
“It’s not the fault of others or their lack of this or that that makes me want to run. It’s my ability in my own mind to be a good commander-in-chief and to make Washington work,” Graham added.
He pointed to his last reelection fight, in which he fended off six primary challengers because, he said, he’s been accused of “working with Democrats too much” as evidence of his bipartisan chops, and pledged to bring those to the White House.
“In my view, Democrats and Republicans work together too little, and I would try to change that if I got to be president. And when it came to radical Islam, I would go after them before they come back here again,” he said.
Graham also weighed in on the controversy gripping the GOP field over the Iraq War and whether it was a mistake to invade Iraq, with the current knowledge that the intelligence on weapons of mass destruction was faulty. Graham said he would “probably not” have launched the invasion, but urged a focus on the future rather than the past.
“But that’s yesterday’s thinking. What do we do today, tomorrow and the day after?” he said.