Josh Hafner

USA TODAY

Sure, Lindsey Graham threw his support behind Ted Cruz for president last week, but that doesn't mean Graham thinks he'd make the best president, per se.

During an interview this morning on MSNBC, Graham said John Kasich would make a better president than Cruz.

"I think Ted would make it a competitive race," said Graham, who later said Cruz "would make a better president than Donald Trump, for damn sure, and I think he'd take the country in a new direction other than (Hillary) Clinton.

"Would he make the best president? No, I don't think so. Of all the people running. John Kasich wins by 11 points against Hillary, so he's absolutely out," Graham said, joking. "Nobody wants a loser like that."

Then MSNBC's Mika Brzezinski asked him straight up: "Would John Kasich make a better president than Ted Cruz?"

"Think so," Graham said.

"Yeah," Brzezinski said.

So, yeah, Graham's endorsing Cruz as the most pragmatic alternative to Donald Trump, not as the best candidate for president. (He endorsed Jeb Bush in January.)

Graham, who folded his own presidential campaign late last year, has a rather unfriendly history with Cruz.

And Graham has implied that their colleagues feel the same, saying earlier this year that if "you killed Ted Cruz on the floor of the Senate, and the trial was in the Senate, nobody would convict you."

Yesterday, Cruz made light of the pair's unlikely alignment after attending an event for him hosted by Graham.

"I’d never before had an event hosted by someone who three weeks earlier publicly called for my murder," Cruz said.

Graham has also compared Republicans' choice between Cruz and Donald Trump to choosing whether to be "shot or poisoned."

And yet, in the strangeness that is 2016, Graham's raising money for Cruz to be president.

"I'm going to help Ted in every way I can," Graham said last week.

Follow Josh Hafner on Twitter: @joshhafner

Cruz jokes about backing from Lindsey Graham, who 'called for my murder'