he joins me as he does every monday. i guess people won t be that surprised with lindsey graham dropping out. he was not polling high at all, and he had been in the undercard debates, right? right. he had been in the undercard debates. but he was hilarious and awesome and great in the undercard debates because he did not care. he was not afraid to say stuff. he was not afraid to throw it out there. and was absolutely entertaining and absolutely good. so the nation mourns the loss of undercard debate lindsey graham. but, yes, you re quite right, that for a long time probably even really from the beginning graham was not going to be the guy. the only thing that this changes two things. one thing it changes is, in south carolina where he s from, his endorsement, his presence could be useful. then we care a lot about new hampshire, where his colleague, his cam padre, senator kelly
resonate with the republican base do you think? well, ayman , if you ask people close to senator graham, part of the issue was he was never able to make that debate main stage and the fact he was always relegated to the undercard and didn t even make the undercard one time around is a reason why possibly he didn t gain more traction. i think you actually saw in the first debate post-paris, post-san bernardino, you saw him really stand out, and i think after that undercard debate, everyone who watched that came out of it saying, hey, you know, the person who really stood out tonight was lindsey graham. he gave a very passionate defense. in particular you will remember of muslim-americans. he apologized to muslim-americans for the tenor of the republican race and he talked about muslims who are wearing the country s uniform. i know i talked to him right after that debate in the spin room and he acknowledged to me he was close to tears in talking about that subject. so it s clearly some
still sound like you re running. because he still wants to push his message. but he really has had trouble. he talked about it there. my regret is i didn t get on the big stage. is there one particular thing that made him want to get out of the he definitely blames the debate structure of the undercard debate. but he simply said he didn t see a path. e with hear that from when candidates drop out. he looked at the calendar. after what was reviewed for performance in our cnn debate he saw no bump out of that. people think this undercard debate is going to be boring. he s known for his one-liners. that s the best part. you never know what you re going to hear. he didn t see a path. if you look at the calendar, he and the campaign will say it had nothing to do with it. today was a deadline to get your name off of the south carolina
in his quest for the gop presidential nomination, south carolina senator lindsey graham is currently polling at near zero. and perhaps those not-so-great expectations have freed the struggling candidate to speak the truth as he sees it and to crack wise in ways his competitors wouldn t dare. senator graham did just that on tuesday night during cnn s gop undercard debate, affectionately known as the kid s table delivering a performance in the li lindsey graham style that s become an entertaining staple in the 2016 debate season. it set up the gut punches he threw at other candidates, mainly donald trump. he ridiculed their rhetoric, side-eyed their policy positions and of course he managed to save a jab or two for president obama
wow, more than half of you. okay, who should go and why? i think that rand paul should go, as much as i like carly fiorina, i don t think it s going to happen. so she could go. i m saying that because we need to funnel this down and really get to focus on people who could eventually make it to the end so we can make the right decision. who should go? jeb. jeb bush? jeb. this great governor of florida? yeah, well, i guess. why should he go? he s not going to make it. there s no um. you know, he s different. he needs it kind of reminds me of romney. romney was brilliant, smart, but he didn t have the oomph. you know? the spinach. who should go? there s eely no need for an undercard debate anymore. and jeb s just bad. he s just really bad. so in the back row, i know that you all think that some of the candidates should not be able to go on to iowa.