WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) — Longtime Republican U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a staunch ally of President Donald Trump, died suddenly on Saturday night at age 71.
Graham, who had just returned from a trip to Ukraine and was scheduled to appear on NBC’s Meet the Press Sunday morning, suffered a tear in the inner wall of his aorta stemming from the hardening of his arteries, according to a preliminary medical examination (a condition that may have been hereditary, given Graham’s father’s death from a heart attack). Axios reports that Graham had privately complained of feeling unwell, but opted not to seek treatment until after his planned media appearance, quipping, “I can’t die now. I still need to do the Russia sanctions, get Iran sorted out and do Israeli-Saudi normalization.”
Tributes poured out from American and international leaders Graham worked most closely with.
President Donald Trump called him “one of the greatest people and Senators I have ever known.” South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster said he was the “fiercest of fighters for South Carolina and America – and a loyal and steadfast friend.” Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Graham’s long and dedicated service in the Air Force and in Congress carried him to far-flung regions of the world. He was a strong advocate for the United States and a strong ally to freedom-loving countries across the globe.”
“Lindsey was a true defender of freedom and the values that make our world safer,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called him “a cherished friend of mine.”
Graham also received praise and sympathy from political opponents, such as Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), who said he “will miss my perhaps most unexpected friend in the Senate, and someone with whom I got some good things done.” But others reacted with venom, such as far-left Young Turks co-host Ana Kasparian declaring simply, “good riddance.”
It was Graham’s friendship with Trump that was perhaps the most unexpected highlight of his political career. First elected in 2002, Graham was generally a mainstream pro-life conservative, but distinguished himself in two major ways: not wavering from the hawkish foreign policy stances that defined the GOP during the George W. Bush years, and opposition to the GOP’s immigration hardliners.
Trump’s 2016 campaign was predicated in large part on challenging GOP conventional wisdom on both issues, priming himself and Graham to be enemies. But after the election, the two met and became allies, forming a bond that rarely faltered in either of Trump’s terms or the four years in between them.
All of the above stances made Graham a controversial figure among multiple factions of the conservative coalition, but nearly everyone on the political Right found themselves applauding him during future Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s infamous 2018 confirmation hearings, which were nearly derailed by last-minute rape allegations by a trio of accusers later found to have severe credibility problems.
Graham was arguably the most forceful lawmaker to come to Kavanaugh’s defense, excoriating what he called the “most unethical sham since I’ve been in politics” in an indignant floor speech that went on to become nearly as famous as the scandal itself. “If you wanted a FBI investigation, you could have come to us. What you wanted to do is destroy this guy’s life, hold his seat open and hope you win in 2020. You’ve said that. Not me.“
Graham died unmarried and without children, having previously written that the “opportunity never presented itself at the right time, or I never found time to meet the right girl, or the right girl was smart enough not to have time for me.” But he is survived by his younger sister Darline Graham Nordone, for whom Graham took on a parental role after both their parents died (when Lindsey was 22 and Darline was 13). “He’s kind of like a brother, a father and a mother rolled into one,” she previously said in a 2015 interview.
Graham’s death further complicates Republicans’ efforts to hold onto their narrow Senate majority in a challenging midterm election year. The governor will appoint someone to serve the remainder of his current term, which ends in January, but without an incumbent previously considered a lock to hold the seat, there will also be a need for a Republican primary for a more permanent successor, which may make the race competitive for the first time in years.