Lindsey Graham: The Republican Party 'has gone batsh-t crazy'
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham (S.C.) pulled no punches when cracking jokes about his own party during a roast at an annual Congressional Dinner sponsored by the Washington Press Club Foundation Thursday night. The South Carolina senator went after most of the 2016 GOP presidential field, all while wearing a Donald Trump "Make American Great Again" hat. "My party's gone batsh-t crazy!" Graham, who dropped out of the presidential race in December, said. "How did I lose to these people?" Former neurosurgeon Ben Carson, Graham joked, "is the nice guy in the race, and he tried to kill his cousin."
Graham's harshest words were for Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas). "If you killed Ted Cruz on the floor of the Senate, and the trial was in the Senate, nobody would convict you," Graham said, jabbing Cruz for his unpopularity among his Senate colleagues. He also took a hit at Cruz's Canadian upbringing when he predicted when Cruz might suspend his presidential bid. "I know exactly when Ted is going to drop out of the race: March 12," Graham joked. "That's Canadian week at Myrtle Beach."
The only two candidates who Graham spared were Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who he didn't mention at all, and Trump, for whom he assumed a more serious tone. "Our party and our country is going to have to up its game," Graham said about the increasing possibility of Trump being the GOP nominee. "You're going to have to ask harder questions."
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