By Kelly Cohen | May 8, 2015 | 9:07 am
Lindsey Graham 2016 is all but official.
South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham said he is "98.6 percent" sure he'll run for the Republican presidential nomination.
And if he does so, he will run on an immigration plan that starkly contrasts all the other GOP contenders.
"If I were president of the United States, I would veto any bill that did not have a pathway to citizenship," Graham, 59, told USA Today in an interview published Thursday night. "You would have a long, hard path to citizenship ... but I want to create that path because I don't like the idea of millions of people living in America for the rest of their lives being the hired help. That's not who we are."
Graham, a third-term senator, insisted that his immigration position does not spell doom for his Republican nomination hopes. Rather, if the GOP's immigration stance stays the same, it will fail in 2016.
"We'll lose," he said. "I mean, we've got a big hole we've dug with Hispanics. We've gone from 44 percent of the Hispanic vote (in the 2004 presidential election) to 27 percent (in 2012). You'll never convince me ... it's not because of the immigration debate."
So when Graham announces his presidential aspirations — which according to Politico will come June 1, likely near his home base of Seneca — he will become the first Republican candidate who clearly and consistently supports a path to citizenship, refuting a claim Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton said earlier this week.
Graham will also come into the race against three other senators who have already declared: Ted Cruz of Texas, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Marco Rubio of Florida.
About Rubio, Graham said: "One of the candidates here helped write the bill; he now says we've got to secure the border first. That's not practical. No Democratic Congress is going to give the Republican Party everything we want on border security until you tell them what happens to the 11 million."
He continued about Paul, saying: "He's a nice man; I like him a lot (but) he's a libertarian. He is one step behind leading-from-behind. At the end of the day, his world view has not stood the test of time and I think he'd be the worst possible person to send into the ring when it came to foreign policy."
Should Graham formally enter the race, he has a long way to go. According to a RealClearPolitics average of polls, he is currently polling 12th, with under two points. The leader, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has 15.5 points, followed by Rubio with 14.3.
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/li...rticle/2564192