South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham is suspending his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination. “Today, I’m suspending my campaign for president,” Graham said in a short video posted to YouTube. “I want to thank everyone who has taken this journey with me. You have honored me with your support. I believe we have run a campaign you can be proud of. We put forth bold and practical solutions to real problems.”
“Four months ago at the very first debate, I said that any candidate who did not understand that we need more troops on the ground in Iraq and Syria to defeat ISIL was not ready to be Commander in Chief,” Graham wrote in an email to supporters. “At the time, no one stepped forward to join me. Today, most of my fellow candidates have come to recognize this is what’s needed to secure our homeland.”
He added: “While we have run a campaign that has made a real difference, I have concluded this is not my time.”
Graham told CNN while he is dropping his GOP bid, “I’m not going to suspend my desire to help the country. I’ll probably to go back to Iraq and Afghanistan and get another update.”
During his campaign, Graham had been largely critical of Republican frontrunner Donald Trump.
“He’s a race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot,” Graham said on CNN following Trump’s . “You know you how you make America great again? You tell Donald Trump to go to hell.”
But the 60-year-old three-term senator never gained traction in national polls, and was relegated to the so-called undercard during most of the GOP debates — even failing to qualify for one: the Fox Business debate in November.
In national surveys conducted by ABC News and the Washington Post, Graham never received more than 1 percent support from likely Republican voters. And according to a recent CBS News/YouGov South Carolina poll, he registered just 1 percent support among GOP voters in his home state.
Monday, coincidentally, was the deadline to get on the South Carolina primary ballot.
Good bye, and good riddance ! It is time for some others to face reality, and drop out!
