



WASHINGTON (CBS DC/AP) — Sen. Lindsey Graham all but confirmed Monday that he will run for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination.

In an interview on “CBS This Morning,” Graham said he’d make the official announcement June 1 in his hometown of Central, South Carolina. But he also used the phrase “I’m running,” explaining that he believes he would make the best commander in chief.

Asked about stumbling from fellow Republicans Sen. Marco Rubio and former Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida on Iraq, Graham said that knowing what we know now his answer of going into Iraq would be, “probably not, but that’s yesterday’s thinking.” Graham, however, added that “I’m afraid that more American soldiers will die in Iraq, eventually in Syria, to protect our homeland.”

Graham is a foreign policy hawk and critic of President Barack Obama’s handling of the Middle East.

Speaking the day after the Iraqi city of Ramadi fell to the Islamic State group, Graham told CBS that he believes more American soldiers will have to die in Iraq and Syria “to protect the homeland.”

He sidestepped questions about whether the U.S. was right to invade Iraq in 2003, arguing it’s more important to stabilize the region now.

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