The Atlantic: “Lindsey Graham’s death has thrown into question the path forward on a number of Trump priorities, including a new reconciliation bill—which could contain portions of his SAVE America Act on voting—as well as the looming confirmation battle over attorney-general nominee Todd Blanche.”
“Trump’s relations with GOP senators have been rocky, to say the least, and Graham was a crucial conciliator who often mediated between the White House and Capitol Hill.”
“The United States was carrying out another round of strikes on Iranian targets early Monday morning local time, the U.S. military said, extending a pattern of attacks between the two sides as their fragile cease-fire continued to unravel,” the New York Times reports.
“It was the second volley of U.S. attacks in a matter of hours that were intended to stymie Iran’s ability to attack commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz.”
“For more than a month since Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, entered the hospital, Washington has been on something of a death watch for the frail 84-year-old former leader, who has provided no information about his condition,” the New York Times reports.
“So the news of the sudden death on Saturday night of another lawmaker more than a decade younger, Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, came as a particular shock to his colleagues. Many of them are around the same age as Mr. Graham, who died two days after his 71st birthday, and did not think of his age or health as an issue.”
“Together, Mr. McConnell’s lengthy hospitalization and the unexpected passing of Mr. Graham offered the latest reminders that the Senate is run by a geriatric class of lawmakers — some old, and some very old — many of whom hang on to their positions of power long past their primes, and long after the age when most Americans have retired.”
“Sen. Lindsey Graham’s death stands to scramble an array of Republican policy efforts, as Congress loses one of its top White House whisperers and coalition builders,” CNBC reports.
“Graham, who died at 71, was a titan of the Senate whose close relationship with President Donald Trump helped the upper chamber broker numerous deals and secure aid for allies such as Ukraine. Graham, who chaired the Senate Budget Committee, was integral to passing Trump’s marquee reconciliation tax-and-spending law, known as the ‘one big, beautiful bill.'”
Mark Leibovich: “Senator Lindsey Graham, who died unexpectedly last night, was a pivotal citizen of the Washington conversation. He loved being in the mix, slapping bipartisan backs off camera, and then, when the lights came on, cracking wise, weighing in, and, yes, currying favor with a certain Audience of One.”
“What could be more fitting, then, for Graham—unable to be a participant on this fateful Sunday morning—to actually become the only thing better: the main topic of the news. He died as he lived.”
“Graham was a complex character—his private life, sudden death, public morality, the whole messy peach of him. Put that aside, though. Or I will (happily), because that will all be covered and uncovered and debated. Already has been.”
“Sen. Mitch McConnell said Sunday night his hospitalization was caused by a fall, providing the most detailed update on his health after weeks of silence about his condition and growing questions over the 84-year-old Kentucky Republican’s health,” the Washington Post reports.
“McConnell said he wasn’t healthy enough yet to return to the Senate and that he has also dealt with ‘a mild case of pneumonia’ while hospitalized.”
Reuters: McConnell says he is unable to return to U.S. Senate yet.
Hollywood Reporter: “Over more than two decades in the Senate, Lindsey Graham was one of its most well-known hawks and, in recent years, one of Donald Trump‘s staunchest defenders.”
“But the South Carolina Republican has also been among media and pop culture’s favorite legislators — a staple both of the Sunday morning talk shows and (without his participation) Saturday and other late-night comedy shows. In the process he became, so stealthily we barely realized it, the face of the Senate to millions of casual TV viewers.”
“Last summer, as many one-time adversaries of President Trump sought to bury the hatchet with him, he met with someone who seemed like a intractable enemy: his former personal lawyer and fixer, Michael D. Cohen,” the New York Times reports.
“Mr. Cohen and Mr. Trump had a brief yet significant conversation at the president’s private, members-only golf club in Bedminster, N.J. breaking a yearslong estrangement marked by legal disputes and public acrimony.”
“Their conversation, which has not been previously reported, provided Mr. Cohen a toehold into Mr. Trump’s orbit and set in motion a broader effort to make peace with the president.”
“Lindsey Graham had reached the end of his rope on the night of Jan. 6, 2021, declaring his alliance with Donald Trump over,” NOTUS reports.
Said Graham: “Trump and I, we’ve had a helluva journey. I hate it to end this way. Oh my god, I hate it. All I can say is, count me out, enough is enough.”
“Except no journey with Lindsey Graham was ever really over. In more than three decades in Congress, Graham constantly maneuvered across the political spectrum in search of relevance and influence.”
“The sudden death over the weekend of Sen. Lindsey Graham is increasing the urgency in the Senate for Sen. Mitch McConnell to return to work to cushion the GOP’s increasingly slim voting majority,” USA Today reports.
“McConnell, 84, has been hospitalized for a month, and Graham unexpectedly passed away on Saturday, July 11 – leaving Senate Republicans down two key voting members.”
New York Post: Lindsey Graham’s sudden death could hamstring Trump’s Senate agenda — after rogues and Mitch McConnell cut margin.
“The sudden death of Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina sets up a succession drama in the deeply conservative state that risks throwing the race into chaos less than four months before the midterm elections,” Bloomberg reports.
“He had been set to face off against Democrat Annie Andrews, a pediatrician, in November.”
“South Carolina Republican Governor Henry McMaster can name a replacement for the remainder of Graham’s term. State election law then calls for a special primary election, creating an intra-party scramble that could help give Andrews an edge. President Donald Trump said Sunday that he had a candidate in mind to take over the seat but would not publicly name them because it was ‘just too soon’ after Graham’s death.”
Said Trump: “I don’t want to even talk about anybody. But I do have somebody that I think is really good.”
“To hear establishment Democrats tell it, Republicans are as excited as progressives about the prospect of Abdul El-Sayed winning a pivotal two-person Democratic U.S. Senate primary in this battleground state on Aug. 4,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“The former local public-health official holds left-wing policy views that could turn off swing voters in November’s election, making the GOP eager to run against him, according to his opponent, four-term Congresswoman Haley Stevens.”
“El-Sayed is arguably the front-runner and has proven himself to be a stronger political athlete than Stevens, quick on his feet and social-media savvy. She describes herself as a workhorse competing against a show horse.”
“The primary will be the first major electoral test of the party’s direction since the implosion of Graham Platner’s Senate campaign in Maine, a debacle that could make some Democrats anxious about nominating another candidate who has never held elected office.”
CNN: Michigan Senate Democratic candidate Abdul El-Sayed on Israel, “defund the police” comments, and whether he’s a socialist.
“For the Iranian regime, keeping a chokehold over the Strait of Hormuz has turned out to be more important than the tens of billions of dollars in sanctions relief from the Trump administration,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“That is because Tehran is playing a long game. Iranian officials believe the country has finally emerged as a regional hegemon, after the U.S. and Israel failed to achieve their main goals in the war they unleashed in February. And, as long as Tehran cements this new status by securing permanent arrangements to control the vital waterway—and dominating the Persian Gulf economies along with it—then the rest, including American sanctions relief, will eventually follow.”
“President Donald Trump just revealed the last words U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said to him before his sudden death at 71,” The Wrap reports.
Said Trump: “He’s a tough one to lose. He was great. He was unique in every way, actually.”
He added: “What makes it even stranger is that I got a call last night, sometime in the early evening… and he called, and he said we’re all set for the Save America Act. He was pushing the Save America Act like crazy. In fact, he said he just landed from Ukraine.”
“Ukraine’s military will organize a new force tasked with making incursions deep in Russian territory to degrade Moscow’s fighting capabilities, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on Friday night,” Politico reports.
”The unit will have a ‘long-range, effectively global, impact on Russia,’ the Ukrainian leader said in his nightly address.”
New York Post: Sen. Lindsey Graham toured top secret Ukrainian “Skyfall” drone factory days before his death.
“Lindsey Graham’s death is poised to upend the Senate, where the GOP majority was already tight and the four-term South Carolina Republican loomed large in several immediate policy fights ahead of the midterms — putting the fate of multiple legislative priorities into question,” Politico reports.
“Graham — who died of a ‘brief and sudden illness’ Saturday, according to his office — chaired the Budget Committee, which has been facing pressure from President Donald Trump to advance a new party-line spending package including a major boost in defense funding. He was also a senior member of the Appropriations Committee, which has been working to land a deal to avert a government shutdown at the end of September.”
“Just five days before his death, late Sen. Lindsey Graham defiantly scoffed at images of Iranians parading around with a poster of a bullseye on his head,” the New York Post reports.
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.
