Lindsey Graham maintained his position that he doesn't think a Donald Trump candidacy would be good for the Republican party.. | AP Photo Graham: A brokered convention wouldn't be fair to Trump

Lindsey Graham has had some harsh words for Donald Trump, but that doesn’t mean he thinks a brokered convention would be fair to the Republican frontrunner.

In an interview with former Obama adviser David Axelrod on his podcast “The Axe Files,” Graham said a fractured nomination process also wouldn’t be good for the GOP.


“If he got two-thirds of what he needs, which I think he's well on his way to doing, for us to steal from him is not going to help the party," he said in the interview, which was recorded before Trump's Super Tuesday rout and Mitt Romney's fiery speech against the real estate mogul on Thursday.

But he was sure to add that he didn't think Trump’s candidacy will be good for the Republican party. “Our party is about to fall apart,” he warned.

“You can lose an election. We've lost an election before. But what I'm trying to do is focus on the day after we lose,” he said. “Can we rebuild this party? Can we create a form of conservatism that's enticing to young people and people of color? I think we can. And I think that's the only hope for the Republican Party and, quite frankly, one of the big hopes of this country."

He also said he didn't buy the notion that Trump would be a wrecking ball for down-ticket races. "I think senators can survive Trump. I think House members can survive Trump because people are basically fair," Graham said. "I don't think they're going to be lumping us all under one umbrella if we separate ourselves. And that means that we're going to have to show the American people that the problems you see in Trump, we also see."

He added, "But I think it's important that we convince people that we get not only the flaws in Hillary Clinton, but the flaws in Donald Trump."

The South Carolina senator and once presidential contender said Trump was “trying to hedge his bets" during his Sunday talk show appearance in which he did not disavow the Ku Klux Klan and white supremacist leader David Duke.

"I don't think he supports the KKK. I don't think he's a racist. But he's I think he's playing a political game,” he said. “It’ll be the demise of Donald Trump and the Republican Party if we don't watch it."

"Yeah, definitely" Trump is exploiting race, he said.