Photo

Donald J. Trump on Wednesday blamed Mitt Romney’s selection of Paul Ryan as his running mate for costing Republicans the 2012 presidential election.

“That was the end of that campaign, when they chose Ryan,” Mr. Trump said at a town-hall-style setting in Bluffton, S.C., about the Wisconsin congressman who is now the House speaker. “That was the end of the campaign. I said, ‘You gotta be kidding.”

Yet despite Mr. Trump’s claim that Mr. Ryan cost the Republican ticket, the GOP nominee, Mitt Romney, won senior citizens by a wide margin.

When Mr. Ryan was selected as Mr. Romney’s running mate, Democrats made an issue of Mr. Ryan’s proposal, made months earlier, to cut Medicare.

“The only one that’s not cutting is me,” Mr. Trump said, pointing to the fact that he and Mike Huckabee were the only Republican presidential candidates who did not call for reforming Social Security and Medicare. Mr. Huckabee recently pulled out of the race.

Mr. Trump also laced into Senator Lindsey Graham, the South Carolina lawmaker whose cell phone number Mr. Trump read aloud at a rally last summer. Mr. Graham, who himself was a candidate until he dropped out and endorsed Jeb Bush, was deeply critical of Mr. Trump throughout the campaign. Mr. Trump repeated some of this criticisms of the senator in an interview on Fox News on Wednesday morning.

“The guy is a nut job,” Mr. Trump said, before winding up for the punch against a candidate who is no longer in the race.

“I think Lindsey Graham is a disgrace and I think you have one of the worst representatives of any representative in the United States,” he continued. “I don’t think he could run for dog catcher in this state and win again.”

