South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, who is toiling at the back of the expansive pack of Republican candidates, said Tuesday that he was confident voters would look past Ben Carson’s surgery experience and land on his foreign policy.
“Ben Carson’s a nice guy, I think he fits Iowa much better than Trump,” Graham said on CNN’s “New Day,” when asked why Carson had shot to the front of the pack in a new Iowa poll.
“But what we’ll see over time, as the electorate starts thinking about ‘Who do we want to be the next commander-in-chief?'” Graham said. “I don’t know what Dr. Carson’s done over the last 10 years other than surgery, which is amazing, it’s something I couldn’t do. But over the last decade I’ve been going to Iraq and Afghanistan, for over 35 times, learning from my mistakes, Bush’s mistakes, Obama’s mistakes.”
Carson has been polling toward the front of the GOP pack, most recently tying Republican front-runner Donald Trump for 23% among Iowans, in a poll where Graham garnered less than 1%.