The Republican presidential nomination in 2024 is former President Donald Trump's "for the taking," if he wants it, but he's hurting his chances if he looks to the past and the 2020 results rather than the future, Sen. Lindsey Graham insisted Sunday, in comments after Trump slammed him in a recent Newsmax interview as a "RINO," or Republican in name only.
"I'm not contesting the 2020 election," the South Carolina Republican said on ABC's "This Week." "I would like to reform the system. The problems we found in 2020 need to be addressed, but the 2020 election is over for me. Donald Trump is the most consequential Republican in the Republican Party today. He has a great chance of being president again in 2024."
But if Trump continues to look backward, "he's hurting his chances" and the Republican Party, said Graham.
"He's the most dominant figure in the Republican Party," said Graham, adding that President Joe Biden's approval ratings are "in the tank because his policies are not working."
Trump, rather than continuing to argue about the Jan. 6, 2021 incidents at the Capitol or other issues, must "talk about the future" to win in 2024.
"He has to talk about how to fix a broken border, how to repair the damage done through the Biden economic agenda, and how to make the world a safer place," said Graham. I believe if he talked about what he's capable of doing and reminds people what he did in the past, he has a chance to come back."
During an interview earlier this month with Newsmax's Rob Schmitt, Trump tagged Graham as a RINO after the senator spoke out against his suggestion that he might pardon some of the people arrested on Jan. 6 if he was re-elected as president.
Meanwhile, Graham said Sunday, when asked about Trump's plans to campaign in South Carolina for primary opponents for incumbent Reps. Nancy Mace and Tom Rice, that the former president can campaign for whomever he wishes.
"I'm not worried about us taking back the House," said Graham. "We're going to take back the House unless we screw this thing up. What I'm looking for is the America first agenda., like when we had a contract with America [in] 1994. What are we for as the Republican Party? How do we fix the problems created by the Biden administration?"
Graham also said he'll vote for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who often comes under fire from Trump, to keep his position as his party's leader in the chamber, but did agree that any GOP leader in the House or Senate must have a working relationship with the former president.
"Most Republicans like President Trump's policies," said Graham. "A lot of us wish he would look forward and not backward. He's very popular because he stands up to all the things that most Republicans believe need to be stood up to. So Mitch Mcconnell, if he runs or anyone else, would have to show a working relationship with the president."
But the GOP is "back in the game" because of the failures of Democrats, said Graham.
"We've got to prove to the people we can push forward a positive future."
Meanwhile, Graham said that he sees U.S. District Court Judge Michelle Childs, of South Carolina, as being the one person who Biden could nominate as Supreme Court justice, as the one who would get the most votes.
"I would be inclined to support her because of her background," he said. "She didn't go to Harvard or Yale. I think that's a plus. She went to the University of South Carolina. We'll see what President Biden does. I told him if you nominate Michelle Childs, she'll be in the liberal camp but she has a hell of a story and somebody, I think, that could bring the Senate together and probably get more than 60 votes. Anyone else would be problematic."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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