Rep. Nancy Mace: Trump Needs To Take Lindsey Graham Out Of The Situation Room
Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) on CNN’s “Laura Coates Live” said she believes President Trump has been “100% right” about the Iran war so far, she is “concerned” about the “Washington war machine” and Senator Lindsey Graham’s influence on the president.
LAURA COATES, CNN ANCHOR: The president is saying and suggesting consistently that this is a short-term endeavor. He has used various words to convey that, that this is not a long-term war or a conflict. Based on the briefing you received today, do you think that that lines up with the reality? REP. NANCY MACE (R-SC), SC GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE: I think that he’s been right so far, 100 percent right. He has executed this war perfectly, in my opinion, so far. What I am concerned about is the Washington war machine doing — COATES: You say that’s Lindsey Graham. MACE: I take that as Senator Graham, the senior senator from South Carolina. I take that as a military-industrial complex. I take that as a guy that is going back to my home state of South Carolina, telling mothers and fathers to send their children into war, to take an island over oil. And I am vehemently opposed to that. COATES: I want to play, so everyone’s on the same page, hearing what you’re talking about in reference to Senator Lindsey Graham, what he had to say. Let me play that. SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): So here’s what I tell President Trump. Keep it up for a few more weeks. Take Kharg Island, where all of the resources they have to produce oil. Control that island. Let this regime die on a vine. We have two Marine expeditionary units sailing to this island. We did Iwo Jima. We can do this. COATES: I know you take issue with several points he’s raised, including Iwo Jima and the loss of American lives there — MACE: 7,000 Marines died on the black sands of Iwo Jima. COATES: So explain your opposition to his statements about Kharg Island or the idea of allowing the regime to die on a vine. MACE: I want President Trump to take Lindsey Graham out of the Situation Room. COATES: Is he advising the president? MACE: He brags about it. And I don’t think Lindsey Graham, for all of that hubris, has thought through or wargamed the consequences of us taking Kharg Island. Has he thought through what the Houthis are going to do? Has he thought through where Hezbollah is? Because Hezbollah is not going to fly on a plane from Tehran. Hezbollah is here. Hezbollah is waiting. Hezbollah has not struck yet. Has he thought about — COATES: When you say here, you mean you think the United States is at risk? MACE: Iran is affiliated with Hezbollah. They get trained in Venezuela. I mean, they’re here. They’ve crossed an open border that was open for the last four years or so. But has Senator Graham thought through the consequences, what Iran will do to disrupt the economy? They’ve already done a lot, but what they will do even more so if we were to take Kharg Island. And so that’s why I’m looking at this more holistically and thinking about, have we thought about the consequences? I want us to declare victory, because we have won. President Trump has won. And now it’s time to show us, the American people, what is the exit strategy? Because the men and women that we send to war deserve an answer to how does this end?







