Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) speaks with Tom Bevan and Carl Cannon on RealClearRadio, RCP's weekly radio show on Sirius XM's POTUS channel. The Republican presidential candidate has just returned from Iraq, where he and John McCain recieved updates on US policy in Syria. Graham talks about his distaste for Senator Ted Cruz,who he refers to as an "opportunist" who "is a libertarian when it is hot" and "has done more to allow ISIL to gain a foothold in Syria than any Senator other than Rand Paul."



"He was one of the loudest voices objecting to going after Assad when he crossed the 'red line,' and he objected to helping the Free Syrian Army," Graham said. "So he has no credibility in my eyes."



"He has voted to gut data mining systems" and "introduced legislation saying you couldn't hold people as enemy combatants indefinitely."





SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM: Ted Cruz's foreign policy has been uneven and he has done more to allow ISIL to gain a foothold in Syria than any Senator other than Rand Paul. He was one of the loudest voices objecting to going after Assad when he crossed the 'red line,' and he objected to helping the Free Syrian Army, so he has no credibility in my eyes when it comes to coming how to defeat ISIL.



I think [Ted Cruz] is an opportunist, he's a libertarian when it is hot. When Rand Paul was talking about droning people in a cafe, Ted Cruz introduced legislation saying you couldn't hold people as enemy combatants indefinitely.



Well we're at war! You don't let people going through the passage of time. They get due process, but in Cruz's theory they are common criminals. So he has voted to gut data mining systems. So he is trying to do two things: he's trying to steal votes from Rand Paul, he's trying to catch those people who leave Trump and Carson by being hard on immigration and other emotional issues. He's trying to claim he is Ronald Reagan, good luck doing that...



Sen. McCain and I did more right than wrong, we were lone voices trying to make sure we didn't turn the war into a crime, and Sen. Cruz was introducing legislation with Rand Paul basically to make sure we couldn't hold people under the law of war.



John McCain and I went to meet with the president, we were going to stand by him to use force against Assad when he crossed the red line.



Nobody has pushed harder than Lindsey Graham and John McCain to help the Free Syrian Army (while they were in tact). Ted Cruz objected to Libya. The big mistake in Libya was not following up when Qaddafi fell, but he also objected to using force to take Qaddafi down...



There is no substitute to getting involved in this worldwide struggle when it comes to radical Islam. This is a religious war, I am taking sides. The people who will win this war will be people within the faith [of Islam].



