Lindsey Graham Is Dead
The news broke very late last night, so details are obviously scarce and subject to revision. However, after what is being described as a "brief and sudden illness," Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) reportedly died yesterday at the age of 71.
In a somewhat eerie coincidence, given the deathwatch currently focused on Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Graham suffered a cardiac arrest at his residence in Washington. He was taken by ambulance to a nearby hospital, and was declared dead on his arrival there.
Graham was in good enough health that he was scheduled to appear on Meet the Press this morning. And on Friday, he was in Ukraine meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Long plane flights and blood clots can certainly go hand-in-hand, so, in the absence of details, it's fair to wonder if the Friday plane flight and the Saturday coronary are related.
Obituaries are a time to reflect on a person's career, and when we consider Graham's, we do not think history's judgment will be kind. He had become one of the biggest show horses in the Senate (probably in competition with Ted Cruz, R-TX, for top honors), and tended only to introduce "message" legislation, like the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2025 and the No Retaining Every Gun In a System That Restricts Your Rights Act. Even when he got a bill passed, it tended to be "show" legislation, such as the Laken Riley Act.
Meanwhile, the thing that you really think of first when you think of Graham is that he was a political chameleon, one who shifted positions in a fashion that was usually ham-fisted, and often quite rapid, based on the way the political winds were blowing. Most obviously, when Donald Trump first ran for president, Graham famously slurred him as a "jackass" and a "race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot," and said that "If we nominate Trump, we will get destroyed...and we will deserve it." Of course, once Trump took control of the GOP, Graham became one of his most subservient lapdogs (and it is Graham who sponsored the bill that would, if passed, lavish money on Trump's "won't cost taxpayers a dime" ballroom).
The talking heads this morning said that Graham was a