Graham Campaign Press Release - Seacoast Online: Graham: "I Can Reset a World Falling Apart"

Graham: "I can reset a world falling apart"

By Erik Hawkins

August 3, 2015

PORTSMOUTH - Lindsey Graham is running for the Republican presidential nomination, and he is making no bones his almost laser-like focus on national security.

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At a Monday editorial board meeting at Seacoast Media Group, the senator offered some of his positions and took questions from editors and staffers in a wide-ranging conversation. Graham sees the defeat of ISIL and radical Islam as well as the stabilization of the Middle East as fundamental elements not only of a safer, but more prosperous nation, connecting national security to the economy, energy independence and even the plight of debt-burdened college graduates.

"I've learned from my mistakes, Bush's mistakes and Obama's mistakes and I believe I have a foreign policy that will be appealing to the American public," Graham said. "I think that I can reset a world that's falling apart."

Graham said he believes that if the National Security Agency's metadata program had been in place years ago, there never would have been a September 11, 2001, attack on the United States, and that its data collection is merely putting together algorithms rather than eying the content of citizens' phone calls and texts. Graham also considers NSA leaker Edward Snowden more of a traitor than a patriot. "Not in my book (is he a hero). He compromised lives," he said.

"I don't want to listen to your phone calls. There are people already here that are planning the next attack on our country," he added.

To put a stop to ISIL and stabilize the Middle East, Graham believes an additional 3,500 ground troops will be needed to train local forces in the region and that Special Forces operations need to be mobilized to take out terrorist leadership. "I'm about security through strength, not peace through strength," he said, noting that the enemies our country faces now are not "rational actors," as the Soviet Union was during the Cold War.

"This is a generational struggle," he said. "This is a religious war for the heart of Islam, even though most of them want to live in peace ... the outcome matters to us. This isn't a battle for the heart and soul of Vietnam or Korean Peninsula ... If you don't think they're going to try and hit us again, you're not listening ... ignoring them leads to a world in complete chaos."

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Graham praised the New Hampshire primary process, one that makes him believe his campaign will succeed given the crowded GOP field.

"A lot of these candidates are running on name recognition, but it's about content and character here in New Hampshire," he said.

"When you have to offer solutions it changes. It's a very informed electorate here in New Hampshire.

"I'm going to work my butt off," he said. "That's what I've been doing over the years to understand the world ... All I can say is, thank God for New Hampshire."

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