Wednesday on Newsmax TV’s “Newsmax Prime,” former senior adviser to Presidents Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan Pat Buchanan said Sens. John McCain (R-AZ), Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Marco Rubio (R-FL) are motivated by “hostility” toward President-elect Donald Trump from the 2016 Republican presidential primary to oppose the nomination of Trump’s secretary of state pick, Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson.
Buchanan said “Tillerson to me represents the point of view of Trump, who wants to work out some deals with Russia just as Nixon wanted to work out deals with China. To do that you have got to have somebody who can speak to them. I think that Trump is entitled to have his secretary of state he wants and the adviser he wants.”
He continued explaining that if McCain, Graham and Rubio “voted against Tillerson for secretary of state, and the Democrats went in lockstep against him, he would go down.”
He added, “I think that would be a real blow to the president-elect and if it were administered by members of his own party. I think there really would be a real rift and a divide in the party and it would be John McCain, and I think Lindsey Graham, responsible for it.”
Buchanan said, “All of them have reasons, other reasons, I mean Graham got walloped by Trump, and he attacked him in every possible way; Trump couldn’t be nominated, Trump couldn’t be elected. McCain was silent because he was running away. Little Marco got a hard time. I think they are motivated partly by hostility to Trump and a desire to elevate themselves.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
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