Graham: ‘We Have to Reject’ Trump’s Demagoguery

BASH: “Senator, you said that the Republicans need to reject it.”

GRAHAM: “Yes.”

BASH: “As you know, your party chairman put in a phone call, a private phone call to Donald Trump, asking him to tone down his rhetoric on immigration. Is that enough, or does he need to do more?”

GRAHAM: “Chairman Priebus has done a good job of rebuilding a party that was in tatters. Financially, we were broke. He's rebuilt the infrastructure there. He did a postmortem on the 2012 election, explaining to all of us that we have hurt ourselves with Hispanics. I expect that he will do more. At the end of the day, for us to win a national election, we have to do better with Hispanics. And for us to have the moral authority as a party to govern a great nation, we have to reject this demagoguery. If we don't, we will lose, and we will deserve to lose.”

BASH: “But, just to be clear, are you saying that the Republican Party chairman should say publicly what he said privately to Donald Trump?”

GRAHAM: “I think it's not only incumbent upon the chairman, but anyone in a responsible position with the Republican Party needs to say the following to the American people. We do not agree with Donald Trump when he says that most illegal immigrants are drug dealers and rapists. We have quite the opposite view, that this is a hard problem that needs to be solved, but most of these people are decent, hardworking folks coming from poor countries to try to improve their lives, and we need to create order out of chaos. If we can't get this right, Dana, then we're going to keep digging a hole, and it's going to cost us the 2016 election, at a time when we could win.”