{"id":4462,"date":"2026-07-12T19:35:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T14:35:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=4462"},"modified":"2026-07-12T19:35:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T14:35:13","slug":"remembering-tenacious-ubiquitous-lindsey-graham","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=4462","title":{"rendered":"Remembering tenacious, ubiquitous Lindsey Graham"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.axios.com\/lPwgOqq_YX99d_mxedN79UFuj9M=\/0x157:6000x3532\/1366x768\/2026\/07\/12\/1783863844246.jpeg\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Sen. Lindsey Graham <\/strong>(R-S.C.), who <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/lindsey-graham-dies-south-carolina-bfa556e170f2df22ce9ffc7165da3dfa\" target=\"_blank\">died<\/a> at 71 last evening from what his office <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/LindseyGrahamSC\/status\/2076185414721847673\" target=\"_blank\">called<\/a> a &#8220;brief and sudden illness,&#8221; found a way to remain relevant through nearly every phase of modern Washington.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The big picture: <\/strong>Graham first rose<strong> <\/strong>to national prominence in 1999 as one of the House managers during President Bill Clinton&#8217;s Senate impeachment trial. <\/p>\n<hr>\n<ul>\n<li>After winning election to the Senate in 2002, Graham became one of President George W. Bush&#8217;s most reliable defenders.<\/li>\n<li>Graham&#8217;s closest political ally,<strong> <\/strong>and best friend in the Senate, was the late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). The two shared a hawkish worldview, a deep skepticism of Vladimir Putin and a belief that American power, when used wisely, could be a force for good.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Zoom out: <\/strong>Long before Graham became a Sunday show regular, he was McCain&#8217;s loyal wingman \u2014 riding the campaign bus, bantering with reporters and smoothing out conflicts among McCain senior aides.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Graham was friendly with the press, throwing back White Russians and telling political tales from South Carolina. To the end, reporters called him directly on his cellphone. Sometimes he called <em>them.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>State of play: <\/strong>Like much of Washington, Graham changed during the Trump era. He grew more guarded with reporters, and could be short with them in the Senate subway. <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>He forged a close working relationship, and a frequent golfing partnership, with the president who once dismissed McCain, a naval aviator and prisoner of war in Vietnam, as &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/story\/2015\/07\/trump-attacks-mccain-i-like-people-who-werent-captured-120317\" target=\"_blank\">not a war hero<\/a>.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>Graham and Trump were largely aligned on Iran. But they often diverged on Russia. Graham consistently pressed for tougher sanctions on Putin, while Trump sought to preserve room for engagement.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>After private meetings<\/strong> at the White House, Graham invariably sang from Trump&#8217;s song sheet.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Go deeper: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/07\/12\/lindsey-graham-dies-suddenly-71\" target=\"_blank\">Sen. Lindsey Graham dies suddenly at 71<\/a> <\/p>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who died at 71 last evening from what his office called a &#8220;brief and sudden illness,&#8221; found a way to remain relevant through nearly every phase of modern Washington. The big picture: Graham first rose to national prominence in 1999 as one of the House managers during President Bill Clinton&#8217;s Senate&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4463,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/images.axios.com\/lPwgOqq_YX99d_mxedN79UFuj9M=\/0x157:6000x3532\/1366x768\/2026\/07\/12\/1783863844246.jpeg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-political-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4462"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4462\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}