Republican senator Lindsey Graham turns on Donald Trump over 'racist' judge flap

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Lindsey Graham attracted brickbats from Donald Trump during the campaign; he's shoving back as racism claims swarm the billionaire
He said Trump's 'racist' row with a Hispanic federal judge is 'The most un-American thing from a politician since Joe McCarthy'
I would like to support our nominee,' he said – 'I just can't'
Trump hammered the diminutive Republican as a 'disgrace,' a 'nut job' and 'one of the dumbest human beings' in politics when they sparred this year

By David Martosko, Us Political Editor For Dailymail.com

Published: 14:55 EST, 7 June 2016 | Updated: 15:52 EST, 7 June 2016

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One of Donald Trump's former bitter rivals in the Republican party blasted him for 'playing the race card' in his feud with a Hispanic federal judge and declared that while he would like to line up behind his party's presidential nominee, 'I just can't.'

South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham told The New York Times on Monday that Trump's accusation of race-based bias against Judge Gonzalo Curiel 'is the most un-American thing from a politician since Joe McCarthy.'

He said that his fellow standard-bearers in the GOP who are looking for a way off the Trump train may have found it in Trump's strident, unapologetic criticism of Curiel as a partisan who refuses to be fair to him because he has advocated for a wall between the U.S. and Mexico

'If anybody was looking for an off-ramp, this is probably it,' Graham said. 'There'll come a time when the love of country will trump hatred of Hillary.'

SHOVING BACK: Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina called Donald Trump's complaints with federal judge Gonzalo Curiel 'the most un-American thing from a politician since Joe McCarthy'

FAR APART: Graham (left) and Trump (right) have sparred for months on the billionaire's way to the Republican presidential nomination

Trump has hammered the diminutive Republican as a 'disgrace,' a 'nut job' and 'one of the dumbest human beings' in politics. He said last month that the South Carolinian was 'beyond rehabilitation' for refusing to get behind him.

Judge Gonzalo Curiel is overseeing a fraud lawsuit against a Trump real estate seminar company

Now Graham has his sights set on persuading other Republicans to rescind their endorsements.

'There are a lot of people who want to be loyal to the Republican party including me,' he told NBC News on Tuesday.

'But there'll come a point in time where we're gonna have to understand that it's not just about the 2016 race, it's about the future of the party.'

'And I would like to support our nominee,' he said. 'I just can't.'

Graham struck a posture nearly identical to the one House Speaker Paul Ryan adopted earlier in the day, threading the needle between criticizing a sin and condemning the sinner.

'I don't think that Donald Trump personally is a racist person ... but he is playing the race card,' he told NBC.

'TEXTBOOK DEFINITION OF A RACIST COMMENT': House Speaker Paul Ryan clobbered Trump on Tuesday morning but insisted he wasn't judging him personally – only his words

And while 'every person in the Republican Party's got to make their own decision,' Graham added, 'I am going to focus on the House and Senate.'

'I am going to focus on helping my colleagues in the House and Senate 'cause I can do that enthusiastically.'

Ryan called Trump's complaints that Curiel isn't an objective judge because his Mexican heritage precludes it 'the textbook definition of a racist comment' on Tuesday morning.

But he said hours later that 'I’m not saying what’s in his heart because I don’t know what is in his heart, and I don’t think he feels that in his heart.'

'But I don’t think it is wise or justifiable to suggest that a person should be disqualified from their job because of their ethnicity.'