Lindsey Graham quits race for White House

‘Suspending campaign, not task to achieve security’

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 on Monday he is exiting the White House race.

“I am suspending my campaign, but never my commitment to achieving security through strength for the American people,” Mr Graham said in a video statement. “The centerpiece of my campaign has been securing our nation. I got into this race to put forward a plan to win a war we cannot afford to lose, and to turn back the tide of isolationism that was rising in our party,” he said.

The 60-year-old Senator from South Carolina never gained traction with his improbable campaign, often polling at just one per cent nationally.

In a race crowded at one point with 17 candidates, Mr Graham was swamped by political outsiders inc-luding Mr Trump, retired neurosurgeon Ben Cars-on and his fellow Senator Ted Cruz. But he has helped shape the conversation on the campaign trail, particularly when it came to national security.

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 ISIS was not ready to be commander in chief.