CNN "State of the Union" interviews during 2017: on Foreign Policy

Nikki Haley: Recommit that attack on one NATO nation is an attack on all

HALEY: Because there was no change to policy. Of course, we believe in article 5. I just met with all of my NATO ambassadors yesterday. We said, a threat on one of us is a threat on all of us. NATO is going to continue to be strong. It's going to continue to be united. Russia's going to try and divide us. But the truth is, we've never swayed from article 5. We honestly still believe it. The President didn't mention it because he wasn't changing it.

John McCain: Mistake to ban immigrants from Iraq; they're our allies

LINDSEY GRAHAM: [In the War on Terror] you need partners. The executive order [banning all travel from predominantly Muslim countries] was a huge misstep, because it included everybody. If it's perceived as declaring war on the faith, we're all going to lose.

MCCAIN: I was especially interested in our interpreters, who literally put their lives on the line to help us in the vital mission of translating between Iraqis and our members of the military. To lump Iraq and Iran in the same category, I think, was a terrible mistake, and I'm glad that Iraq is not going to be part of those countries that are listed.

Lindsey Graham: More vetting from failed stats ok, but no Muslim ban

GRAHAM: There are 3,500 American Muslims in uniform. And every time you talk disparagingly of the faith, you make it impossible to have partners within the faith. You're never going to win this war by killing people. You need partners. And your partners are going to be the vast majority of Muslims who do not want to turn their daughters over to ISIL. I've been to Iraq and Afghanistan 40 times. And most people in the faith are not buying what these nut jobs are selling. So refugees can be infiltrated by terrorists. I don't blame the president for wanting more vetting in countries that are becoming failed states. But the executive order was a huge misstep, because it included everybody. When you do something like this, if it's perceived as declaring war on the faith, we're all going to lose. If it's perceived as making us more safe and not a Muslim ban, we're all going to win.

Lindsey Graham: Putin hates democracy and hates coalitions of democracies

GRAHAM: If you let Putin get away with this, then we're opening ourselves up for endless attacks by foreign entities. Let us make our own decisions about who we'd like to be president. Putin hates democracy. Two critics have died from plutonium poisoning. But these people in Russia play really hard. The Duma is a joke. The independent judiciary has been lost. He wants to break the back of the European and NATO. He hates coalitions of democracy. He dismembered the Ukraine. He's affecting the Baltics day in and day out. The democracies in his shadow are under threat. Vladimir Putin is not a friend to democracy. He is a crook. And I wish our president, who I want to him, would stand up to Putin and say that an attack on one party in America is an attack on all of us. Don't you want Russia to pay a price for interfering in our election? I want the Russians to be sanctioned more for interfering in our election.

Lindsey Graham: Educating kids damages radical Islam more than any bomb

GRAHAM: The intelligence community, those in uniform and those who serve in the shadow, are really brave. Can you imagine what it's like to be a CIA person on the ground somewhere over there? So the bottom line is, they don't get much credit, because we can't talk about what they do. I've been to Iraq and Afghanistan 40 times. What have I learned? You're never going to win this war through military force alone. The budget the president's proposing cuts the State Department by over 30 percent. That is soft power. So, to President Trump, if you destroy soft power, those diplomatic tools that lead to holding and building, we'll never win this war. If you take off the table building a small schoolhouse for a poor young girl in Afghanistan, Iraq or Syria, to give her an education, we'll never win this war, because an education to a poor young girl is far more damaging to radical Islam than any bomb. That's got to be on the table.

John McCain: Russian election tampering could destroy democracy

Lindsey Graham: State Department budget means "soft power" abroad

"You're never going to win this war through military force alone. The budget the President's proposing cuts the State Department by over 30%. That is soft power," Graham said.

He said the United States needs a budget for projects such as "building a small school" in combat regions like Iraq and Syria. "An education for a poor young girl is far more damaging than any bomb. That's got to be on the table," he said.

Graham declared Trump's budget "dead on arrival" Tuesday, pointing to its cuts to the State Department and complaining that Trump didn't call for more significant increases in defense spending.

Lindsey Graham: Russia's Putin is disrupting democracy everywhere

Graham said if the FBI determines Trump's campaign illegally coordinated with Russia, Attorney General Jeff Sessions "cannot make this decision" about whether to pursue prosecutions.

"When it comes to Russia, he has a blind spot. The bottom line is that Putin is disrupting democracy everywhere," Graham said.