Graham floats Rubio-Kasich ticket

by Jesse Byrnes - 02/22/16 9:21 AM ET

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) is urging leading Republican presidential candidates behind Donald Trump to unite in an effort to bring down the GOP front-runner.

“I think a Kasich-Rubio ticket would be great,” Graham said late Sunday during an interview with Rita Cosby on WABC, describing Kasich as a “terrific” governor of Ohio and Rubio as a “very, very talented” senator from Florida.

{mosads}”Rubio-Kasich, Kasich-Rubio — I think those combinations, if they could consolidate and come together, would be [a] very potent ticket in the fall and maybe help us stop Trump,” Graham said on the program before also floating a potential “Rubio-Kasich-Cruz alliance.”

Graham, who ended his White House bid in December, had thrown his support behind Jeb Bush, who dropped out of the GOP race on Saturday after taking fourth behind Trump, Rubio and Cruz in the South Carolina primary.

Trump won all 50 delegates in that primary, with nearly a third of the vote. He’s also led in polls released earlier this month of voters in Nevada, which holds its GOP caucuses Tuesday.

Graham suggested that a Trump presidency would “change the party for the worse.”

“Donald Trump would get wiped out in November, but really make it hard for the party to succeed in the future,” Graham said Sunday, arguing that Kasich and Rubio could help bring out voters in Ohio and Florida, which are swing states in the general election.

“I didn’t make it, Jeb didn’t make it, so take what I say with a grain of salt. But I can tell you this, that I think I understand the nation pretty well in terms of what problems we have as Republicans,” Graham said, ripping Trump’s rhetoric on Hispanics and his “race baiting and religious bigotry.”

Tags 2016 GOP primary 2016 presidential election Donald Trump John Kasich Lindsey Graham Marco Rubio