Lindsey Graham announces end to presidential run via YouTube

“I am not going to give an inch on the idea”, he said.

“If you want to repeal Obamacare, get a new president”, Graham said at one debate.

“With Senator Lindsey Graham’s announcement, Republicans lost our most qualified, thoughtful, fearless and honest presidential candidate, not to mention the candidate with the best (and it seemed sometimes the only) sense of humor”, McCain added. The South Carolina Republican, who serves part-time as an attorney in the service, is expected to make his presidential candidacy official on Monday.

Wilkins said Graham defined the race in terms of national security, and believes the senator’s message will continue to resonate even if he’s no longer in the race.

Known for his wit and hawkish approach to foreign policy, Graham sounded the alarm as he folded his hand, laying out the high stakes for the GOP.

In the first Republican primary debate, he said that any candidate who did not understand that the United States needed more troops on the ground in Iraq and Syria to defeat the Islamic State group was not ready to be commander-in-chief.

Graham said that he isn’t likely to endorse soon, and John McCain, his most vocal backer, announced he wouldn’t back anyone in the primary. Yet privately, according to Graham strategist Brett O’Donnell, the senator was thinking about a way out of the race.

Graham, a hawk on defence and foreign policy, ranked in lowest tiers in opinion surveys of Republican voters in a race being dominated by Trump.

Many influential South Carolina GOP donors have been backing Graham out of loyalty to the state’s senior senator.

Graham left the race on the day of the deadline for removing his name from the SC ballot, avoiding a potentially embarrassing vote in his home state that might have invited challenges to his Senate seat down the line. In the Las Vegas debate spin room, after what will have been his last “undercard” performance, Graham said that he would push at least through the New Hampshire primary.

The “Trump Effect” is particularly noteworthy in SC, as it is one of the few states in which the controversial contender has active support from established Republican figures.

Responding to rumours about his sexuality on a previous occasion, Graham joked about whether he was having a secret affair with Ricky Martin. Graham has announced Monday he is ending his bid for the GOP nomination.