(July 12): Lindsey Graham, the South Carolina senior senator and foreign policy hawk who changed from a Donald Trump sceptic to one of the US president’s strongest allies, died on Saturday. He was 71.
The cause of death was “a brief and sudden illness,” Graham’s office said in a post on X that offered no additional details. He was in Kyiv as recently as Friday before returning to Washington, where he was scheduled to appear on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday morning.
Emergency personnel responded to a call for “cardiac arrest” at Graham’s Capitol Hill home on Saturday night, NBC reported, citing police scanner audio.
Graham was “one of the greatest people and Senators I have ever known,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform on Sunday. “He was always working, and was a true American Patriot. Lindsey will be greatly missed!!!”
Seeking a fifth Senate term, Graham had been locked in a battle for re-election in the typically conservative southern state with Democrat Annie Andrews, a pediatrician. He won his primary election on June 9 and was heavily favored to secure victory in November, according to polls.
Russia sanctions
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Graham was among the Senate’s staunchest backers of Ukraine, travelling to Kyiv 10 times during Russia’s full-scale of invasion of its neighbour, now into its fifth year. Among his last legislative efforts, Graham was part of a bipartisan group of senators who claimed last week to have reached an agreement with the Trump administration to move ahead with new sanctions on Russia, raising the prospect of more US economic pressure on the Kremlin to halt its war in Ukraine.
“I’m grateful to Lindsey for recognizing our warriors. The stronger Ukraine is on the battlefield, the greater the chances that diplomacy will ultimately succeed,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in an X post on Saturday.
A military veteran and frequent visitor to US troops stationed overseas, Graham was first elected to the US Senate in 2002. In the 2008 general election, he became the first person in South Carolina history to garner over one million votes, according to his Senate biography.
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Graham was one of Trump’s loudest critics when the reality TV star and real estate developer sought the Republican presidential nomination in 2016, calling him a “race-baiting xenophobic religious bigot”, and a “disgrace”, among other things. On X, then known as Twitter, Graham said choosing Trump as the GOP figurehead would destroy the party.
The lifelong bachelor had staged his own short-lived bid for president, announcing his run on June 1, 2015, before suspending the campaign on Dec 21.
By Trump’s first term in the Oval Office, though, the two men had formed an alliance that morphed over time into staunch loyalty on the part of the senator. The pair golfed together several times over the years at Trump’s courses in Virginia and Florida.
“Lindsey has been a wonderful friend, and has always been there when I needed him,” Trump wrote in a social media post in June.
Graham was also a harsh critic of Iran and a backer of strong military action against the Islamic Republic.
Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, posted their condolences on X.
“Lindsey understood that the security of Israel and America are inseparable,” Netanyahu said. “Israel has lost one of its greatest friends. America has lost a great patriot.”
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US Air Force
Lindsey Olin Graham was born in Central, South Carolina, on July 9, 1955, to Millie and Florence James “FJ” Graham, who ran a bar-restaurant in the small town southwest of Greenville.
He became the first member of his family to attend college, attending the University of South Carolina in Colombia where he obtained a BA in psychology and a JD in law.
Graham logged six-and-a-half years of service on active duty as a lawyer with the US Air Force. From 1984 to 1988 he was assigned overseas and served at Rhein-Main Air Force Base in Germany. Upon leaving active duty Air Force in 1989, he joined the South Carolina Air National Guard, where he served until 1995.
During the first Gulf War in the early 1990s, he was called to active duty and served at McEntire Air National Guard Base in South Carolina.
Graham’s family “appreciates prayers at this time and asks for privacy during this incredibly difficult period,” his office said.
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