Graham: Trump Is a 'Wrecking Ball'

Says rhetoric could cost the GOP the Latino vote, 'moral authority to govern'
By Polly Davis Doig,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 12, 2015 1:35 PM CDT
Graham: Trump Is a 'Wrecking Ball'
Sen. Lindsey Graham and fellow Republican candidate Donald Trump, who Graham calls a "wrecking ball" with Hispanic voters.   (AP Photo/Rainier Ehrhardt, John Locher, File)

There is a gaggle of Americans currently seeking the 2016 presidential nomination, and a fair number of them are using today to talk about Donald Trump. Lindsey Graham led the charge, calling Trump out on his anti-Latino rhetoric and labeling the mogul "a wrecking ball" that could take apart the GOP as it seeks to bring Hispanic voters into the fold in what Graham terms "a defining moment" for the party, reports the Hill. "If we don't reject this way of thinking—clearly, without any ambiguity—we'll have lost our way, [and] we'll have lost the moral authority, in my view, to govern this great nation." Calling Trump's comments "offensive," Graham said, "I'm not going to be part of that."

Carly Fiorina was considerably more amenable, saying that Trump was "tapping into an anger I hear everyday ... that a commonsense thing like securing the border or ending sanctuary cities is somehow considered extreme." Democrat Jim Webb, meanwhile, told Fox News, via the Hill, that Trump shouldn't "be throwing these bombs" and that such "divisive, inflammatory rhetoric from people who want to be commander in chief is" less than helpful. (Trump, meanwhile, is showing no signs of letting up.)

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