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"The more you know about Donald Trump, the less likely you are to vote for him," South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham said. Graham: We should have kicked Trump out of the party

Republicans should have expelled Donald Trump from the Republican Party, Lindsey Graham said Monday.

The former presidential candidate told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer that the New York billionaire’s rhetoric toward immigrants has exacerbated the problem the GOP had with Hispanics in 2012.

“He took our problems in 2012 with Hispanics and made them far worse by espousing forced deportation,” Graham said. “Looking back, we should have basically kicked him out of the party.”

Asked how that would be done, the South Carolina senator suggested Republicans could have united against him like many are doing now.

“The more you know about Donald Trump, the less likely you are to vote for him. The more you know about his business enterprises, the less successful he looks. The more you know about his political giving, the less Republican he looks,” Graham said. “We should have done this months ago.”

Graham added that the Trump train is leaking oil. “I think this whole assault on his credentials of being a successful businessman and being a true Republican conservative is beginning to work,” he said.

Trump has dominated the Republican primary thus far, including in South Carolina last month, besting his nearest competitor by 10 percentage points. Graham acknowledged that Trump’s message is resonating with angry voters but insisted he would rather the party lose without Trump than try to win with him.

“This is not about who we nominate anymore as Republicans as much as it’s who we are. This is a fight for the heart and soul of the Republican Party,” Graham said. “What is conservatism? If it’s Donald Trump carrying the conservative banner I think not only do we lose the election, but we’ll be unable in the future to grow the conservative cause.”

Graham refused to say what he would do if Trump won the Republican nomination and faced Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton in the general election but advocated for anybody but Trump, a list that includes Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. “As much as I disagree with Ted Cruz, if it came down to Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, I would be firmly in Ted’s camp because I think he really is a conservative,” he said.

Graham attributed Trump’s dominance to the crowded GOP field’s reluctance to attack him early but maintained voters are now starting to see the real-estate mogul differently after rival candidates have begun exposing his flaws.

“How many of these guys when there were 17 of us basically hid in a corner?” Graham asked. “They didn’t wanna, you know, poke the guy. They didn’t wanna get people mad. Ted Cruz was running as his best friend.”

“Any time you leave a bad idea or a dangerous idea alone,” he warned, “any time you ignore what could become an evil force, you wind up regretting it.”