Graham leaves door open for WH bid

Graham leaves door open for WH bid
By Cameron Joseph - 10-05-14 10:02 AM EDT

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) downplayed interest in running for the White House but left the door open to a potential bid Sunday morning, just days after first floating the possibility.

"I know what it's like to run for president. I'm running for the Senate. I know what it takes to put an organization together, to put the money together," Graham said on CNN's "State of the Union."

"I've been with Sen. McCain twice in this endeavor. I am nowhere near there," he continued. "I am all in running for the Senate. And in 2015 I want to work with [Rhode Island Sen.] Jack Reed to replace sequestration and I want to make sure the Iranian nuclear deal is a good deal before it becomes law."

Graham also took shots at President Obama for his handling of ISIS, repeating his view that American ground troops were necessary to help solve the crisis in Iraq and Syria.

"This strategy of aerial bombardment is not going to work," he said. "There is no way that I can see how we fix the problem in Iraq and Syria without American ground troops."

Graham praised Obama's response to the Ebola outbreak, and compared it to the spread of Islamic fundamentalism in the Middle East.

"The stronger Ebola gets in Africa, the more it spreads. The more entrenched it is, the more endangered we are. The same for radical Islam in the Mideast," he said.

"It seems to be that the president is all-in when it comes to Ebola, I want to compliment him for sending troops to help get ahead of this in Africa, but we've got a series of half-measures with ISIL that are going to draw this conflict out and will not lead to ISIL's destruction which makes it much more dangerous for over here. The stronger they get in the Mideast, the more danger we are here at home," he said.

Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), who was on after Graham, defended Obama's strategy against ISIS, though he admitted it would take a while to "get the Iraqi forces up to speed."

"Air power alone can't win but when you take our superiority in the air and you put forces that will fight, and we're away from that point with the Iraqi forces but we have to get there, then you have the combination to begin to put the pressure on ISIL, move it back and eventually degrade it and destroy it," he said, using another acronym for the militant group.