November 5th, 2014

Sen. Lindsey Graham: Obama a ‘distant figure’ in D.C.

Fresh off of his re-election to the United States Senate, Lindsey Graham (R-SC) spoke with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer about the Republican’s new Senate majority. The full interview aired on CNN’s The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer, 5-7 p.m. ET.

Please credit all usage to CNN’s Wolf Blitzer

 
Highlights:
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

 Graham on why majority doesn’t guarantee a Republican White House in 2016: “This crowd can turn on you.  In 2004, we had the White House, President Bush, and 55 Republicans.  By 2008, we were down to 40.  So we’ve got to deliver, and this may be our last best chance as a party to re-establish ourselves in the eyes of the American people.

 Graham on Iranian nuclear deal: I will not tolerate, as much as I want to work with the president, engaging in a deal with the Iranian ayatollahs without the Congress looking at the details and voting on it because it’s too important.”

 Graham’s advice to President Obama: I would like to do a mini Simpson-Bowles still.  He really embraced that idea.  So I just told him be patient. Invite people down. You know, you’re an engaging fellow. It’s hard not to like the president, but he’s a very distant figure in Washington. Get that behind you and finally unleash Joe Biden.  Everybody likes Joe.” 

A full transcript of the interview is available after the jump.
 

 Full Interview:
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Among the Election Day’s big winners is the Republican senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. After winning a third term with 54 percent of the vote, he said there are areas where a conservative Republican Congress can, in fact, work with a liberal Democratic president.

Senator Graham is joining us now from South Carolina. Senator Graham, thanks very much for joining us. Let’s get to the sensitive issue right away of immigration reform.

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: Yes.

BLITZER: You heard Mitch McConnell say if the president were to do extensive immigration reform unilaterally through executive order, it would be a big mistake. He’d be waving a red flag in front of a bull. You support comprehensive immigration reform. If Congress can’t pass legislation in the House and the Senate, what’s wrong with the president doing it on his own?

GRAHAM: Well, my view is that the president should give the new Congress a chance. I’ve been working on this since 2006. I’ve got the scars to show for it.

My belief is this is a dangerous miscalculation by the president, but — I hate to agree with Jay Carney. I don’t want to ruin a rising career in the broadcast world, but I think Jay’s probably right. The president has calculated that the risk of not following through with the executive action when he promised to do it is greater than just trying to engage the new Congress. I think he’s making a mistake here politically, but the public will soon let him know if they agree with this decision.

BLITZER: Do you think there are enough votes in either the lame-duck session of the Senate and the House or in the next session to go ahead and pass substantive legislation, the kind of legislation you, Senator McCain, Marco Rubio, others wanted?

GRAHAM: Really, I don’t know, Wolf. At the end of the day, the Republican Party would benefit from getting immigration off the table. It would be hard for me to see how we could win the presidency in 2016 if we are blamed for blocking immigration reform.

At the same time, I think the American people will be very fair when it comes to immigration reform. But they will rebel against President Obama doing it unilaterally because if you just give amnesty to people through executive action and really don’t secure your border and change the legal immigration system, which he can’t do by himself, you’re inviting a run on our border. So I think he’s making a big misstep here.

And if we do try as a new Republican-controlled Congress and we fail because we’re too hard-headed or too hard-hearted, then we’ll pay a price.

BLITZER: What was the message the president delivered to you when he called you last night to congratulate you on your win?

GRAHAM: He said you’re an interesting cat. I represent a very red state, I love my state, but I do try to find ways to solve problems.

I think what you saw today was the outline of a solution on our infrastructure problems. The president embraced last night with me a desire to replenish the highway trust fund; improve our roads, bridges and ports and using overseas tax dollars that could be repatriated at a lower rate, below 35 percent. I think that’s going to work. I’m very encouraged by what he said about infrastructure.

BLITZER: What was your message to him?

GRAHAM: Be patient. You know, patience is a virtue; in democracy, I think it’s a necessity. Mr. President, you’re no different than other presidents at the six-year point. Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan were able to do really good things.

Challenge us on immigration. Expose us as a party. Do we really want to have a practical solution to immigration now that we have both houses of Congress? Test us in 2015, don’t go it alone. Work with me and others to replace the defense cuts under sequestration that are destroying our ability to defend the country.

I would like to do a mini Simpson-Bowles still. He really embraced that idea. So I just told him be patient. Invite people down. You know, you’re an engaging fellow. It’s hard not to like the president, but he’s a very distant figure in Washington. Get that behind you and finally unleash Joe Biden. Everybody likes Joe.

BLITZER: So you think Joe Biden could be a good conduit, a good liaison with the new Republican leadership?

GRAHAM: Let Joe out of the house and Mr. President, invite us down. Talk us to, you know. The next two years could be good if we all want it to be.

BLITZER: How many times in the first six years has he invited you over for dinner or, let’s say, a cocktail or a little movie or something at the White House?

GRAHAM: Well, I don’t blame him for not inviting me to dinner. Most people don’t. But we’ve had a lot of time on the phone. I’ve been to the White House numerous times. I want to work on an authorization to use military force about our actions in Syria and Iraq.

So I’ve actually had a pretty good interaction with the president, but we are now in that heated time in American politics. We’ve become distant. I’ve just gotten reelected; I’m really excited about the next two years, the next six years. So invite us down, let’s re-engage and see where it takes us.

BLITZER: We’re going to continue this conversation in a moment. Senator Graham, I’ve got to take a quick break, but when we come back, we’re going to talk about what’s going on in Iraq and Syria internationally. Will America’s adversaries take advantage of a politically weakened president of the United States in these final two years of his office to go ahead and do stuff the United States sincerely doesn’t want them to do? Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: We’re back with Senator — Republican senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.

Senator Graham, the impressive wins that the Republicans had yesterday in the House and the Senate, Governor’s races, state legislatures, all across, should that be seen as a mandate that the Republicans can now coast and say the American people are with us? What happened?

GRAHAM: Well, we had very good candidates for a change. This was the best crop I’ve seen in a long time, but it was not embracing us. This herd you described running over Democrats can really turn on us.
You don’t have to read the tea leaves to understand what’s going on here. The American people put a stop sign out in front of the Oval Office; the president just obviously can’t see it. So I don’t take this as people in America becoming Republicans. I see this as telling the president stop, reconsider where you’re going.

BLITZER: So, what’s the most important lesson the Republicans have to learn? Because you remember, four years ago when the Republicans took the House the president acknowledged there was a shellacking. Two years later, though, he was decisively reelected. So there may have been another shellacking yesterday, but that doesn’t guarantee the Republicans are going to be in the White House two years from now.

GRAHAM: This crowd can turn on you. In 2004, we had the White House, President Bush, and 55 Republicans. By 2008, we were down to 40. So we’ve got to deliver, and this may be our last best chance as a party to re-establish ourselves in the eyes of the American people.

I think Mitch has got the right attitude: pass budgets, pass appropriation bills, try to find common ground with the president. I think he’s making a serious mistake about going it alone on immigration because that’s exactly what people are tired of and don’t like about his style of governing. Challenge us to meet him in the middle and sit down and roll your sleeves up and get involved with the new Congress.

So my advice to Republicans is that you all said you wanted to solve problems. Come here to town to prove you can.

BLITZER: You know you are going to get a lot of resistance from some Tea Party activists, some others, maybe Senator Ted Cruz of Texas. They’re not going to want to compromise with this president.

GRAHAM: Everybody that got elected had a couple of things that were music to my ears as Republicans. They all rejected about leading from behind. And you asked the question about how the world views this election.

Here’s what I would tell the enemies and adversaries of the United States: that this election was about President Obama’s foreign policy and it was perceived to be weak. And people who got elected said they wanted to be stronger and bolder. They wanted to be more engaged against ISIS and ISIL, be more pushback against Putin, not less. Deal stronger with Iran. I’m going to introduce legislation requiring any deal regarding the Iranian nuclear program to come to Congress for an up or down vote.

So on a foreign policy front, the people running as Republicans rejected leading from behind. So I hope our enemies and adversaries understand the American people want our president to push back. And hopefully he’ll get the message.

BLITZER: You’ve seen all those the reports, though, that if the administration together with the other international partners go ahead and reach some sort of deal with Iran, he says potentially — at least the reports suggest — he might unilaterally ease those sanctions against Iran and forget about Congress because he doesn’t think he’d necessarily get support in Congress.

GRAHAM: The most consequential decision this president will make in his final two years is how to do with the Iranian nuclear threat. I believe they’re trying to use a small nuclear program to one day break out and build a bomb just like North Korea. I think the deal in the making is a North Korea in the making, and Democrats up for reelection should want to see this deal. Every member of Congress should insist that we see this deal and vote it up or down.

I hope Hillary Clinton would say that’s a reasonable thing to do. I will not tolerate, as much as I want to work with the president, engaging in a deal with the Iranian ayatollahs without the Congress looking at the details and voting on it because it’s too important.

BLITZER: I’m worried — and I’ve spoken to a lot of others who are worried — that some adversaries of the United States will see a weakened American president politically — he suffered some major political setbacks yesterday — as an opportunity to test the United States. Whether Putin or anybody else, ISIS. Are you worried about that?

GRAHAM: A bit, but here’s the message I think the American people sent in this election: they want a bolder foreign policy. Every Republican — the days of isolationism in the Republican Party, flirting with isolationism seem to be over. This crop of new Republicans make me and McCain look like moderates.

I am so pleased with their view of how to defend America. And the idea that the American people understood what they were saying and elected them is encouraging to me. And the American people by 71 percent believe that a terrorist attack is somewhat or very likely against our nation. So the American people understand the threat, and any enemy of the United States needs to understand this election was about pushing back against you.

BLITZER: Senator Rand Paul, for example — he may not be an isolationist, but he calls himself a non-interventionist. He’s – he’s — have we lost you over there, Senator? Hold on a second. I think he’s reconnecting. Hey, Senator, can you hear me?

GRAHAM: Yes. Hey –

BLITZER: All right. I was just saying

GRAHAM: I think — I think Putin disconnected me.

BLITZER: Yeah, I don’t think Putin — you may be on his do not enter list into Russia, but that’s another story.

Senator Rand Paul, he may not be an isolationist, but he clearly describes himself as a non-interventionist, which is not necessarily what you are.

GRAHAM: I think it was his idea of how the Republican party should embrace foreign policy was one of the biggest losers. I like Rand; I want to work with him on domestic issues. But his idea of, you know, embracing a foreign policy footprint that is completely contrary to peace through strength, quite frankly — I think, one of the biggest losers last night was that view of foreign policy. Nobody coming into the Senate in this election cycle was anything less than bold on foreign policy.

BLITZER: Senator Graham, thanks very much for joining us. And congratulations on your reelection yesterday.

GRAHAM: Thank you.

END

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