Rep. Dana Rohrabacher said Tuesday that Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and John McCain of Arizona don’t speak for the rest of the Republican party.
Speaking on C-Span’s “Washington Journal,” Mr. Rohrabacher, California Republican, said the two veteran lawmakers are out of sync with their party on various issues, including immigration and the use of the military.
“I wish people in the media would quit focusing on, and I wish the administration would quit focusing on, Lindsey and John McCain as spokesmen for the party because they are not,” he said. “There is a lot of resentment from the party that these two guys have presented themselves as spokesmen for the Republican party, and they are not spokesman for the Republicans. They are spokesmen for themselves.”
Mr. McCain, the party’s 2008 presidential nominee, and Mr. Graham have become favorite targets of tea partyers and grassroots conservatives, who often describe them as “Republican In Name Only” and accuse them of selling out the party’s limited government principles.
Mr. Graham is running for re-election this year and faces a challenge from his right flank.
Mr. Rohrabacher said Mr. Graham and Mr. McCain have been wrong on immigration and that most Americans oppose their push for more military adventurism, including in Syria.
“I think the American people are war weary,” he said. “It was a mistake to follow George Bush into Iraq. It costs $1 trillion and so many thousands and thousands of lives were destroyed between those who died and those who now have broken bodies, and now we are going to have to take care of them.”
“It was a mistake, and Lindsey Graham and John McCain don’t understand how war weary the American people are, whether they are talking about Syria or elsewhere,” he said. “The American people don’t want to have large deployment of troops overseas anymore, and when Lindsey and McCain talk I don’t think it reflects that fundamental shift in the way that Republicans feel about war and engagements.”
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.
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