Clowns to the left of him, jokers to the right – and presidential contender Sen. Lindsey Graham is wondering how the heck he's not doing better in the polls.

The hawkish Republican, who's spent nearly 13 years in the U.S. Senate, shared these gripes today on Morning Joe.

'On our side, you've got the No. 2 guy, tried to kill somebody at 14, and the No. 1 is high energy and crazy as hell,' Graham said of Ben Carson and Donald Trump, respectively.

'How am I losing to these guys?' Graham asked.

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'How am I losing to these guys?' Sen. Lindsey Graham asked on this morning's Morning Joe, calling out Donald Trump for being 'crazy as hell' and Ben Carson for trying to kill a guy

Lindsey Graham says he can't believe he's losing to No. 2 Republican Ben Carson (left) who recalled trying to stab a guy at age 14 and No. 1 Republican Donald Trump (right) who doesn't have a plan for ISIL, Graham said

Graham announced his presidential run on June 1, but has failed to gain traction.

In the CBS battleground poll that was released yesterday, Graham was polling at zero percent in Iowa, alongside former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore, who has yet to even make a kids' table debate because his numbers are so low, and former New York Gov. George Pataki.

Graham was at 1 percent in New Hampshire and 2 percent in his home state of South Carolina.

Meanwhile Trump has been leading in the polls for months, though Carson is gaining on him in Iowa, the state that holds the first presidential caucus. Two recent polls placed Carson ahead of Trump in the Hawkeye State, and one poll had them tied.

Both Carson and Trump have made bold proclamations to voters, but, so far, it hasn't impacted their standing in the polls.

Graham thought Carson's comments about being violent in his youth, however, could do the trick.

'As a teenager, I would go after people with rocks, and bricks, and baseball bats, and hammers,' Carson said on yesterday's Meet the Press. 'And, of course, many people know the story when I was 14 and I tried to stab someone.'

Graham noted how he's never tried to murder anyone. 'No one, ever,' he said. 'So this should move me up a little bit.'

'No hammers?' interjected panelist John Heilemann.

'Well the day's not over,' Graham said. 'But as or right now, nobody.'

Lindsey Graham said the fact that he's never tried to murder someone - 'no one, ever' - should give him a bounce in the polls

Lindsey Graham has spent almost 13 years in the Senate, but his experience is working against him, he suggested, as Republican primary voters are turning to political outsiders like Donald Trump and Ben Carson

More seriously, though, Graham said that his party's desperation to nominate someone outside the political box is leading to some almost nonsensical policy prescriptions.

'Like – Ben Carson said he would have declared energy independence as the reactions of 9/11,' Graham said. 'That's kind of different. You know, I hereby declare, you know, bull horn out here at the World Trade Center. I hereby declare energy independence is not what I would be looking for.'

Carson suggested that the United States could have forced Saudi Arabia's hand to produce Osama bin Laden by threatening to no longer import oil, despite the fact that the Saudis had kicked the terrorist out of their country and he was living in the tribal lands along the Pakistan and Afghanistan border.

'I think that would probably have trumped any loyalty they had to people like Osama bin Laden,' Carson explained to ABC's George Stephanopoulos of making an energy threat.

A miffed Stephanopoulos explained that Saudi Arabia didn't have loyalty to bin Laden or know where the Al Qaeda leader lived.

'Well, you may not think that they had any loyalty to him, but I believe otherwise,' Carson replied at the time.

Graham pointed out some of the problems with Trump's foreign policy too – mainly, the billionaire hasn't fully articulated what he wants to do.

'Just look at Donald Trump's foreign policy. What is it? What is he going to do about ISIL? What is it? What is it? What is his game plan to destroy ISIL? Does anybody know?' Graham said.

Turning his attention to the more establishment candidates, Graham suggested that Marco Rubio's position on abortion – he's against it even in cases of rape, incest or the life of the mother – will prevent him from moving into the White House.

'I don't think that you're going to be president of the United States,' Graham said.

Jeb Bush, Graham thought, was 'very viable candidate' but needed to toughen up.

Bush made headlines this weekend when he lost his cool at a South Carolina town hall.

'I've got a lot of really cool things I could do other than sit around, being miserable, listening to people demonize me and me feeling compelled to demonize them,' Bush said of the state of the presidential race. 'That is a joke. Elect Trump if you want that.'

Those comments, 'did come across as a bit whiny,' Graham said. 'This is nothing,' Graham said of any sort of political vilification Bush has endured thus far.

Of course, Graham dug at the Democratic frontrunners too.

'The No. 2 went to the Soviet Union on his honeymoon,' Graham said of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, a self-proclaimed 'Democratic Socialist.'

'And I don't think he ever came back,' Graham added.

As for Hillary Clinton, Graham poked her for that 'dead broke' comment she made in June 2014, which Politifact labeled as 'mostly false.'

Clinton made the comments to try to look in touch with the American people, explaining that her struggles were real.

But to Graham, that doesn't matter, if the party nominates Trump.

Graham called on the establishment candidates, himself included, to step up their game.

'Donald Trump will get killed in the general election,' he said. 'He will absolutely get – Hillary Clinton will mop up the floor with this guy.'