Graham to endorse Jeb Bush for president

Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush on Friday claimed the endorsement of former rival Lindsey Graham, the hawkish SC senator.

“The thing I admire most about Jeb is that he stayed true to who he is, that he hasn’t tried to get ahead in a contested primary by throwing unsafe rhetoric around”, Graham said at a news conference in North Charleston, South Carolina.

“Jeb Bush is best prepared to be commander in chief on day one”, Graham was quoted as saying in a statement.

Graham had been running for the GOP presidential nomination, but bowed out of the race back in December after struggling in the polls.

“It was a very successful foreign policy and one that I think one could envision a bipartisan consensus emerging around”, Jeb Bush said of his father’s approach, “and one the American people could support”.

Graham is backing Bush to ensure “the Republican Party picks a nominee who can win in November”. The South Carolina Republican, who serves part-time as an attorney in the service, is expected to make his presidential candidacy official on Monday.

“Everything we learned for the 2012 election, he has ignored”, Graham said last week of Trump.

While Bush praised Graham in return, calling him “a patriot” and the “strongest, policy-oriented national defense senator”, he spent much of the event discussing rival Marco Rubio.

POLITICO talked to almost two dozen major donors, and most say they are waiting for what one veteran Republican and former Bush 43 administration appointee described as the “family hall pass” to jump to another campaign after the New Hampshire primary. “Tell Donald Trump to go to hell”, Graham told CNN.

Welcoming the support in a key GOP primary state, Bush called Graham a “patriot” who is committed to rebuilding the US military for the battle against radical Islam. In South Carolina, a great organization matters.