GOP Debate: Graham, Pataki, Santorum Would Attack Iran

SIMI VALLEY — In the second-tier GOP debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library on Wednesday evening, moderator Jake Tapper asked Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) whether he would authorize a military strike against Iran (he initially said “nuclear strike,” then caught himself).

“If I believed they were trying to break out and get a bomb–absolutely,” Graham said.

Co-moderator Hugh Hewitt then weighed in, citing alternate methods of stopping Iran’s nuclear program, including assassinating Iranian nuclear scientists: “Is anything that works on the table?” he asked former New York Gov. George Pataki.

Pataki suggested providing Israel with massive ordinance penetrators (MOPs) and took a swipe at Hillary Clinton for being insufficiently aggressive on Iran.

“Any means necessary?” Hewitt asked former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA).

Santorum recalled fighting for sanctions on Iran–and recalled lacking the necessary votes in Congress for many years, owing in part to Hillary Clinton’s and Barack Obama’s opposition.

Santorum said that if Iran did not agree to inspections of nuclear facilities anywhere, at anytime, “we will take out those facilities.” An attack would not start a war, but stop one, he said.