Graham: GOP will get ‘slaughtered’ if Trump nominee

by Jesse Byrnes - 02/17/16 10:12 AM ET

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) argued Wednesday that if Donald Trump is the GOP nominee, Republicans will get “slaughtered” in the November election.

Lambasting the outspoken Republican front-runner as an “opportunist,” Graham argued that Trump would kneecap Republicans’ hopes of winning back the White House.

“I think he’s a kook. I think he’s crazy. I think he’s unfit for office,” Graham, a backer of Trump rival Jeb Bush, said on Fox News’s “America’s Newsroom.”

“I’m a Republican. and he’s not. He’s not a conservative Republican, he’s an opportunist,” Graham said on the program. “He’s not fit to be president of the United States.”

Donald Trump is not a conservative Republican. He’s an opportunist. He’s not fit to be President of the United States.

— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) February 17, 2016

If Donald Trump is the GOP nominee for President, we will get slaughtered in November 2016. And frankly, we will deserve it.

— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) February 17, 2016

Trump pushed back against the broadside, sending several tweets arguing that Graham had no support before ending his own White House bid in December and “no cred” to make the claims.

“I will beat Hillary easily,” Trump insisted in one of his tweets before going after Fox News for airing remarks from one of his critics on the program.

Trump is battling several rivals, including Bush, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and John Kasich heading into Saturday’s Republican primary in South Carolina, where he holds a considerable lead in the polls.

Tags 2016 GOP primary 2016 South Carolina primary Donald Trump Lindsey Graham Marco Rubio South Carolina Ted Cruz