--- title: Republican Debate: Lindsey Graham's Funniest Lines description: Sen. Lindsey Graham rebounded with a number of one-liners that made the audience laugh at the CNN undercard debate. canonical: https://time.com/4037650/lindsey-graham-debate-jokes/ author: Daniel White article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-09-17T00:54:04.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T11:00:04.143Z article:section: Politics og:title: Here Are the Funniest Lindsey Graham Jokes from the Debate og:description: The South Carolina Senator made the audience laugh. og:url: https://time.com/4037650/lindsey-graham-debate-jokes/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4b4448b0aec70f1c/698863fd8e06015037462618/lindsey-graham-republican-debate.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Republican presidential candidate, U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) speaks during the presidential debates at the Reagan Library on September 16, 2015 in Simi Valley, California. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Here Are the Funniest Lindsey Graham Jokes from the Debate twitter:description: The South Carolina Senator made the audience laugh. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4b4448b0aec70f1c/698863fd8e06015037462618/lindsey-graham-republican-debate.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Here Are the Funniest Lindsey Graham Jokes from the Undercard Debate by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Sep 17, 2015 12:54 AM UTC  Republican presidential candidate, U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) speaks during the presidential debates at the Reagan Library on September 16, 2015 in Simi Valley, California. Republican presidential candidate, U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) speaks during the presidential debates at the Reagan Library on September 16, 2015 in Simi Valley, California.Justin Sullivan—Getty Images by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Sep 17, 2015 12:54 AM UTC Sen. Lindsey Graham rebounded from a sluggish performance at the last undercard debate with a number of one-liners that made the audience laugh. Here are some of the zingers from the South Carolina Republican at the second undercard debate Wednesday: **On being at the undercard debate** “One, thanks, CNN, for having people at this debate.” **On the audience** “There are no Democrats here tonight. If you’re here, raise your hand. You went to the wrong (debate).” **On his Southern accent** “We’re not going to deport 11 million people here illegally, but we’ll start with felons, and off they go. And, as to the rest, you can stay, but you got to learn our language. I don’t speak it very well, well, look how far I’ve come?” **On why immigration is necessary to bring more workers into the country** “(Former South Carolina Sen.) Strom Thurmond had four kids after he was 67, if you’re not willing to do that, we’ve got to come up with a new legal immigration system.” **On Republican frontrunner Donald Trump** “What I heard last night, it’s the Cartoon Network: ‘Ooh, I’m big, I’m strong! I’m gonna hit ’em in the head!’ That’s not foreign policy, that’s a cartoon character.” **On his time at the University of South Carolina law school** “I wasn’t the best law student. By the end of this debate, it would be the most time I’ve ever spent in any library.” **On how Ronald Reagan used to drink with Democratic leaders** “He sat down with Tip O’Neill, the most liberal guy in the entire House. They started drinking together. That’s the first thing I’m going to do as president: [We’re going to drink more](http://time.com/4000929/lindsey-graham-alcohol/).” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4037650/lindsey-graham-debate-jokes/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4037650/lindsey-graham-debate-jokes/"},"headline":"Here Are the Funniest Lindsey Graham Jokes from the Undercard Debate","datePublished":"2015-09-17T00:54:04.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T11:00:04.143Z","description":"Sen. Lindsey Graham rebounded with a number of one-liners that made the audience laugh at the CNN undercard debate.","url":"https://time.com/4037650/lindsey-graham-debate-jokes/","keywords":["Debates","Lindsey Graham"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4b4448b0aec70f1c/698863fd8e06015037462618/lindsey-graham-republican-debate.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Daniel White","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/daniel-white/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4b4448b0aec70f1c/698863fd8e06015037462618/lindsey-graham-republican-debate.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Republican presidential candidate, U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) speaks during the presidential debates at the Reagan Library on September 16, 2015 in Simi Valley, California.","caption":"Republican presidential candidate, U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) speaks during the presidential debates at the Reagan Library on September 16, 2015 in Simi Valley, California.","creditText":"Justin Sullivan—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/debates/","name":"Debates"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4037650/lindsey-graham-debate-jokes/","name":"Here Are the Funniest Lindsey Graham Jokes from the Undercard Debate"}}]}] ```