Trump strikes back: Graham ‘not very bright’

Donald Trump struck back at Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who called him a “jackass” on CNN, bashing the senator for soliciting him for campaign cash years ago and announcing his telephone number to a full crowd.   

“It’s amazing, he doesn’t seem like a very bright guy. He actually seems to me not as bright, obviously, as [former Texas Gov.] Rick Perry,” Trump said during a rambling speech Tuesday in front of retirees at  Sun City, S.C. 

“Didn’t this guy call me four years ago? Yes, he called me three or four years ago, Lindsey Graham, I didn’t even know who he was.” 

After telling the crowd that Graham had called him to ask for a good reference to be on Fox News and to see if he could come visit Trump to receive some campaign cash, Trump held up a sheet of paper with a telephone number on it that he said was Graham’s.

D.J. Judd, a producer at CBS News, tweeted that CBS confirmed that the number was Lindsey Graham’s cell number.

Earlier in his speech, Trump said of Graham, “I see your senator — what a stiff, what a stiff — Lindsey Graham — he’s registered zero in the polls” and later called him a “lightweight.”

Graham accused Trump of “becoming a jackass at a time when we need to have a serious debate about the future of the party and the country,” during an interview Monday on CNN’s “Erin Burnett OutFront.”