Lindsey Graham in CNN "State of the Union" interviews during 2017

On Foreign Policy: 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.

On Foreign Policy: 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.

On Foreign Policy: 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.

On Health Care: ObamaCare takes money from some & gives free care to others

GRAHAM: Well, we'll get there, I hope. If we don't, we'll pay a heavy price. We're the dog that caught the car. So the bottom line is, I hope Democrats will help us. I remember voting against Obamacare on Christmas Eve, the year it passed, jammed down our throats. The best thing we can do is try to get Democrats to help us. Obamacare, when we passed it, Congress was excluded, right? Listen, I'm going to be noble and I'm going to live like the average person in South Carolina, so I went into the state program. I got whacked. And I'm like 58 years old, short white guy, no kids. My premiums tripled. My deductible went up to $6,250. This is not health care reform. This is just taking money from one group of people and giving health care free to another group of people.

On Immigration: Sanctuary cities are symptom of a broken system

MCCAIN: When federal laws are passed, municipalities cannot exempt themselves.

GRAHAM: Sanctuary cities is a symptom of a greater problem. The best thing we could do to honor your son is to fix a broken immigration system. Along with Senator McCain, I've been trying to get it fixed rather than yelling about it. In our bill, you get increased penalties if you come back into the country once you're deported. If you're a felon, you can never come back into the country. There's a lady holed up in a church right now with two kids. Do you want her deported? I don't. What I want to do is keep the people who killed your son from ever coming back to our country, identify them and kick their ass out, and give that lady a chance to stay here by learning our language, paying taxes, and getting to the back of the line. That's what I'm for.

On Foreign Policy: 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.

On Foreign Policy: 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.

On Immigration: If we declare war on Islamic faith, we're all going to lose

Graham said the initial travel ban was offensive to the 3,500 Muslims who serve in the US military. "Here's what I hope the President understands: When you do something like this, if it's perceived as declaring war on the faith, we're all going to lose," Graham said.