Lindsey Graham, the hawkish Republican senator who has called for thousands of US troops in the Middle East and warned Americans against nominating Donald Trump for president, announced Monday he is exiting the White House race.
In a race crowded at one point with 17 candidates, Graham was swamped by political outsiders including Trump, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson and to a degree his fellow Senator Ted Cruz.
In the first in a series of Republican primary debates, he stated that any candidate who did not understand that the United States needed more troops on the ground in Iraq and Syria to defeat the Islamic State group was not ready to be commander in chief.
He has expressed particular bitterness towards Trump, describing him as a xenophobic bigot for his comments about Muslims and at one point this month saying American voters should tell the bombastic billionaire to "go to hell."