WASHINGTON — Sen. Lindsey Graham apologized to the Muslim world for Donald Trump at Tuesday night’s GOP presidential undercard debate and insisted the billionaire doesn’t reflect America’s attitude toward Islam.
“Donald Trump has done the one single thing you cannot do — declare war on Islam itself,” an emotional Graham said at the debate
“…To all of our Muslim friends throughout the world, like the King of Jordan and the President of Egypt, I am sorry. He does not represent us.”
Trump — who was appearing in the later debate for the candidates ranked higher in public polls — came under fire for his proposal to ban all Muslims from coming to the US as a way to stem ISIS terrorists.
Graham (R-SC) spent the four-person second-tier debate insisting he has the aggressive combat troop strategy to defeat ISIS, while almost pleading with GOP counterparts to not start war on the Muslim faith. “Your religion is not the enemy,” Graham said.
But former Sen. Rick Santorum and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee both sought to point out difference between Muslims and Christians.
“If Islam is as wonderful, and peaceful as its adherents say, shouldn’t they be begging us to all come in and listen to these peaceful sermons?” Huckabee, a former pastor, said in support of FBI surveillance of mosques.
Santorum said he doesn’t necessarily agree with Trump’s full scale ban of Muslims but he believes the former reality TV star has raised a “very important issue.”
“The fact of the matter is not all Muslims are Jihadists and no one, including I suspect, Donald Trump would say that. But the reality is, all Jihadists are Muslims,” Santorum said. “That’s a reality. And we have to stop worrying about offending some people and start defending all Americans. Because we’re not right now.”
Santorum, the Republican nominee runner-up in 2012, added: “World War III has begun and we have a leader who refuses to identify it and be truthful to the American people to the stakes that are involved, in part, because his policies have led us here.”
Terrorism dominated the debate as candidates pushed their strategy to defeat ISIS in the wake of the deadly Paris attacks and the ISIS-inspired San Bernardino killings.
Former New York Gov. George Pataki, who recalled his leadership after the World Trade Center attacks, said Trump’s Muslim ban “is un-American, it is unconstitutional and it is wrong.”
Graham, the unabashed hawk, stole the undercard debate with humor, movie-references, one-liners and plenty of eye rolls at opponents’ answers. Graham has long called for 10,000 US ground troops in Iraq and Syria to take out ISIS, whereas many on both sides of the aisle are reluctant to engage in another prolonged ground war.
Graham branded fellow senators and presidential rivals Ted Cruz and Rand Paul “isolationists.” He also insisted ISIS wouldn’t exist if President Obama had kept the ground forces in Iraq that President George W. Bush deployed after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
“I blame Obama for ISIL, not Bush,” Graham said. “I’m tired of beating on Bush. I miss George W. Bush. I wish he were president right now. We wouldn’t be in this mess.”