Graham: Trump Should Apologize for Not Correcting Man Who Called Obama Muslim
RUSH TRANSCRIPT:
MITCHELL: "What would your advice to him be now? Should he apologize?"
GRAHAM: "Yes. He should come on television, say I made a mistake. We all make mistakes. He's new to this business. You know, I used to be really afraid of confronting people like this because oh, my goodness, the loudest person in the room, you know, you don't know what to do. Just let it go, don't be afraid of losing a vote. Make sure you let people in that audience know why you're running and what you believe and not try to get everybody's vote. If I were Donald Trump I would go on national television and say I handled this poorly, if I had it all over to do again I would have challenged his question and challenged his construct. That would help Mr. Trump, it would help all of us, it would be the right thing to do. That would be my advice. It's okay to apologize, it's okay to make a mistake. What's not okay is to play like it never happened."
MITCHELL: "Is he trying, though, not to upset or lose the support of the significant portion or what many polls indicate is a significant portion of his supporters who may agree with the questioner?”
GRAHAM: "Yeah, I think what -- you know, we all have to deal with this. You have to deal with the angry person, the person who is frustrated, the person who is -- says hateful things. I happens to me all the time. It happens to all of us. I am no longer worried about losing a vote. When something like this happens, I try to use it as a teaching moment, to teach people about who I am and what I believe and really to reset the table. I think President Obama's been a weak opponent of evil, a poor champion of freedom. I think he undersells the threats to this country, oversells our successes, but I don't question his faith, I don't question his patriotism, I don't question where he's born and this is the time for people in the political arena to push back on what I think is a growing belief in America you can say anything about anybody and it doesn't matter. It does matter.”
MITCHELL: "Is this a defining moment for Donald Trump?”
GRAHAM: "It is. This is a defining moment for all of us here. Now, listen, there are people in my party who are frustrated. I don't like President Obama's policies, I think he's -- economically we're not going in the right direction and the world is falling apart on his watch. But I don't question patriotism. At the end of the day this is a defining moment for Mr. Trump. The man in that audience has to be put in his place by the person who is answering the question. If you have any doubt about President Obama, where he was born, and apparently Mr. Trump does, get that behind you. I don't think it is going to be good for the Republican party to elect somebody as their nominee to make somebody the nominee who doubts that President Obama was born in Hawaii. Mr. Trump in many ways is responsible for this, by creating this idea that maybe Obama was born in Kenya, not Hawaii, saying that most illegal immigrants or rapists and drug. He's playing into this hateful narrative and it's now time for him to set it right."
