South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham urged Republicans backing Donald Trump to rescind their endorsements following the presumptive Republican nominee’s comments about judges’ ethnicity and religion.
“This is the most un-American thing from a politician since Joe McCarthy,” Graham told The New York Times regarding Trump’s comments.
“If anybody was looking for an off-ramp, this is probably it,” he added. “There’ll come a time when the love of country will trump hatred of Hillary” Clinton.
Trump is facing scrutiny for comments he made over the past week accusing Muslim and Mexican judges of being biased. He was asked Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation” if a Muslim judge would treat him unfairly due to his proposal to ban Muslims from entering the United States.
“It’s possible, yes,” Trump said. “Yes. That would be possible, absolutely.”
The businessman was already under fire for his assertion that the Mexican parentage of Judge Gonzalo Curiel has colored his rulings in lawsuits against Trump’s business school, given Trump’s plan to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.
CNN has reached out to Graham and the Trump campaign for comments.
Trump surrogate New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie dismissed Graham’s comments as having any significance.
“Lindsey’s lost any credibility he’s had. He should worry about going back to South Carolina and trying to rebuild his base in South Carolina or he won’t be in the United States Senate for much longer,” he said Tuesday.
Although Graham previously told CNN that he is supporting neither Trump nor Clinton, he did say that a phone call with Trump in May was a “cordial, pleasant phone conversation” and said the two discussed national security threats, including ISIS. Graham also told CNN’s Dana Bash in May that he informed donors that he will no longer pick a fight with Trump because it does no good.
Graham and Trump have had an acrimonious relationship stretching back to some of the earliest days of the Republican presidential race, when Graham was also a Republican primary candidate.
One of their most notable beefs occurred last summer when Trump released Graham’s personal cell phone number during a press conference.
The senator, who dropped his presidential bid in December, has since offered some of the most biting criticisms of Trump, including calling him a “race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot” late last year.
And after Trump locked up the Republican nomination, Graham said that Trump doesn’t have the temperament or judgment to be president and said Trump has “conned” the Republican Party.