Lindsey Graham - Position Changes


[Editor's Note: On Monday, Dec. 21, 2015 Lindsey Graham announced the suspension of his presidential campaign via a youtube.com video posted to his campaign website. Senator Graham stated, "I am far more confident today that our party will reject the Obama doctrine of leading from behind and will provide the strong leadership America needs to restore our military, take the fight to our enemies and do what it takes to make our country safe and preserve our way of life. This is a generational struggle that demands a strategy and the will to win. I will continue to work every day to ensure that our party – and our nation – takes on this fight. I’m suspending my campaign, but never my commitment to achieving security through strength for the American people."]



We are not suggesting that position changes are good or bad. We understand they are important to voters, which is why we have included them. We list the current position as Now X (Pro, Con, or Not Clearly Pro or Con) and the former position as Formerly Y (Pro, Con, or Not Clearly Pro or Con).
1
Now Con

"The one thing I've learned from Paris is that we need to have a timeout on bringing refugees into this country until we have a system that we think will work. So I'm calling for a timeout on Syrian refugees… I want an away game when it comes to ISIL, not a home game."
Source: Jordain Carney, "Graham Calls for 'Timeout' on Accepting Syrian Refugees," thehill.com, Nov. 16, 2015

Formerly Pro

"We should take our fair share. We are good people… I don't think the average American has any idea what it's like to live in the Mideast right now… I don't see how you can lead the free world and turn your back on people who are seeking it... [If we reject refugees, then we should] take the Statue of Liberty and tear it down... because we don't mean it anymore."
Source: Mary Troyan, "Lindsey Graham Calls on U.S. to Accept Refugees,” www.usatoday.com, Sep. 8, 2015

Back to present position