Second-tier GOP White House hopeful Lindsey Graham has been known to have an adversarial relationship with his Senate colleague and presidential rival Ted Cruz, and the South Carolina lawmaker minced no words on Thursday when he warned that nominating Cruz would lead to an inevitable defeat in 2016.

"If you're going to tell a woman who has been raped she has to carry the child of the rapist, you're losing most Americans," Graham said in reference to Cruz's opposition to abortion in all cases, according to the New York Times. "If the nominee of the Republican Party will not allow for an exception for rape and incest, they will not win. Ted Cruz doesn't have an exception for rape and incest."

Graham suggested that his Texas colleague did not understand how Democrats would frame the abortion issue and make himself part of a debate he was bound to lose, Politico reported.

"He says the debate's going to be the Little Sisters of the Poor," Graham noted in reference to a Roman Catholic group that has opposed contraception coverage requirements that are part of President Barack Obama's signature healthcare law.

"(Cruz is) gonna take the fight to the Democrats about their wanting to impose social policy on charitable organizations," the South Carolinian added. But "it will be about rape. ... It will be about the nominee of the Republican Party telling a woman who's been raped you've got to carry the child of the rapist," he concluded.

On the issue of immigration policy, meanwhile, Graham, whose national poll numbers hover near 1 percent, also had some tough words GOP front-runner Donald Trump, Time magazine reported.

"I believe Donald Trump is destroying the Republican chances to win an election that we can't afford to lose," he said in a speech before the Republican Jewish Coalition. "It's about repairing the damage done by incredibly hateful rhetoric. It's not about turning out more people, it's about winning more people over to our cause."