In an interview Friday afternoon, Republican presidential candidate Sen. Lindsey Graham tore into President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry in the wake of Russia's stepping up its role in the ongoing conflict in Syria – calling the former "incompetent" and the latter "delusional" with regard to the politics of the Middle East.
"Number one: Our biggest problem is that our commander in chief is incompetent, and our secretary of state is delusional, regarding the politics of the Mid-East, Putin, Iran, and just the entire situation over there," said the South Carolina senator during an interview on the Fox News Radio show Kilmeade and Friends.
"Our president, quite frankly, is weak, he is indecisive, and what does it mean for America?" Graham went on. "With Assad being propped up by Russia and Iran, it means the war [in Syria] never ends."
Graham said that Obama views Putin as a "Bush-type figure" who is going to get himself trapped in Syria, but said that Putin was actually making a "bold play."
"The president believes that Putin's kind of a dummy, he's sort of a Bush-type figure that's blundered his way into Syria and he's gonna get in a spot where he can't get out," the senator continued. "Obama's writing him off as sort of some kind of cowboy, and what Obama doesn't understand is that Putin's making a bold play, a smart play from the Russian point of view, but a nightmare for us."
"What Barack Obama doesn't understand is that he's making the job of the next president exponentially harder," said Graham. "He's, in his own way, delusional about the way the world is working."
Graham added that Russia and Iran are sending a message to Obama that he's "weak."
"At the end of the day, Russia and China have been given a pass by Obama, because they wanted a deal with Iran so badly – they had to have Russia and China's support," Graham said. "Here's what Russia and Iran are saying to Obama: 'You're weak.' They're slapping him in the face – they have no respect for the man, they have no respect for the United States."
