Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told Donald Trump to focus on Vice President Kamala Harris’ (D) policies over personal attacks if he wants to win the election this fall.
During a Sunday appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” the South Carolina senator said the former president was at risk of losing the 2024 race if he continues with his insult-driven campaign.
“President Trump can win this election,” Graham told moderator Kristen Welker. “His policies are good for America, and if you have a policy debate for president, he wins. Donald Trump the provocateur, the showman, may not win this election.”
Asked if he agreed with former Governor Nikki Haley, who called out Trump earlier in the week for being fixated on talking about crowd size or knocking Harris’ intelligence, Graham said there were better ways to go after the vice president.
“Yeah. I don’t think — I don’t look at Vice President Kamala Harris as a lunatic,” he explained. “I look at her as the most liberal person to be nominated for president in the history of the United States.”
Accusing Harris of drawing from the “Soviet Union playbook” with her stances on the economy, environment and social issues, Graham said, “I would make it about policy. A nightmare for Harris is to defend her policy choices.”
“Every day we’re not talking about her policy choices as vice president and what she would do as president is a good day for her and a bad day for us,” he added.
Offering the Republican candidate a blueprint for success, Graham said, “I’m looking for President Trump to show up in the last 80 days to define what he’ll do for our country to fix broken borders, to lower inflation.”
It may be hard to reorient Trump’s current campaign strategy, however.
During a Saturday rally near President Joe Biden’s hometown of Scranton, Pennsylvania, Trump couldn’t help himself but stray from policy.
In between claims about a floundering economy, he said the VP was “not a very good wordsmith” and declared that he was a “better looking person than Kamala.”
