Lindsey Graham won’t be on the Republican presidential debate stage next week — but he says he doesn’t want to hear whining from the candidates who will be there.
The South Carolina senator failed to top the 1% polling average to make the undercard round of Fox Business Network’s Tuesday night event.
But he told CNN’s Michael Smerconish on Saturday that candidates who criticized the questions in the previous GOP debate are showing that they aren’t prepared for the challenges of the Oval Office.
“If you’re gonna take on Putin, you’re gonna take on ISIL, you need to be ready to answer hard questions,” Graham said.
“At the end of the day, you can’t complain about being challenged for the office of president of the United States when people are challenging what you said,” Graham said.
“Now, you can push back when people are lying about what you did, or (are) putting in a bad light that’s unfair,” he said.
Graham said he will be in New Hampshire during the debate, and will attempt to come up with a “creative way” to watch it.
He also said he won’t be ending his candidacy — comparing himself to Arizona Sen. John McCain’s once-lagging 2008 campaign, which gained traction and eventually led to his nomination.
Graham has focused largely on ISIS, also known as ISIL, in Iraq and Syria, and has called for a more robust military response to the group.
“People fighting this war don’t give up, and I want to be their voice,” he said.
Graham also defended Ben Carson, a rival for the GOP nomination, amid questions about whether Carson’s stories of a violent youth and a scholarship to West Point are accurate.
“It’s one hell of a story by any standard — where he came from, what he’s achieved in his life,” Graham said of Carson.
“I think the purpose of the story is to say that I was going down the wrong path and it was my faith, my belief in God, that turned me around,” Graham added.