South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham on Tuesday continued his repeated attacks on Republican front-runner Donald Trump, saying he thought it was clear Trump had never served in the military from the real estate mogul's "silly idea" to defeat ISIS.
Trump has said he would defeat ISIS by taking their oil wealth using ground troops.
"Name one person who thinks it's a good idea for America to go to Iraq and Syria, take the oil [and] use it for our benefit," Graham said of Trump on New Hampshire's Concord News Radio . "How smart do you have to be to know that will inflame the entire Middle East? That will be a recruiting boon for ISIL. This is a silly idea, it's a dangerous idea and honestly you've never served in the military if you think that's a good idea."
"How would you like to be the soldier that's sent back to Iraq to say, 'hey we're here to take your oil to pay for our wounded warriors,'" continued Graham. "If you want to turn everybody in Iraq against us that's a good idea. If you want a radical jihadist-on-steroids movement then go ahead and implement that idea. It's a dangerous idea. It shows you don't know what you're talking about."
"Name one military analyst or advisor who suggests that's a good idea. All I can say [is] there's no substitute for experience when it comes to being commander in chief. You're asking people to go into war, sending a ground force into Iraq and Syria to take the oil from the Iraqi and Syrian people to use for our benefit is just beyond irresponsible. It would destroy our ability to operate in the Mid East, it would allow our - ISIL to flourish."
Graham added that if Trump thought he could deport 11 million people, "then literally you don't know what you're talking about."
The South Carolina senator said Trump's rhetoric and popularly was nothing usual, saying the United States had a history of anti-immigrant sentiment.
"This happened throughout the history of the United States. We had a wave in the '20s and '30s where we stopped immigration - legal immigration - cause we didn't want to change the Protestant nature of our country," he stated. "We put immigration limits on Catholics. We had a time when Irish need not apply. This has happened before. There was a time before World War II when we were isolationist."
