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Simon Marks reflects on the political career of the late Senator Lindsey Graham, who died aged 71 after 'brief and sudden illness'. Graham, who had served as the senator for South Carolina since 2002, was running for reelection this year. He had been a long-term Trump ally, despite breaking with the President on some issues including foreign policy. Listen to the full show on the all-new LBC App: https://app.af.lbc.co.uk/btnc/thenewlbcapp #simonmarks #donaldtrump #trump #lindseygraham #uspolitics #LBC LBC is the home of live debate around news and current affairs in the UK. Join in the conversation and listen at https://www.lbc.co.uk/ Sign up to LBC’s weekly newsletter here: https://l-bc.co/signup
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We wanted to end this evening with some reflections on the death of Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina
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an influential foreign policy whisperer in President Donald Trump's ear. Senator Graham collapsed at home on Capitol Hill on Saturday night
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his life coming to a premature end at the age of 71
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just hours after he had returned to Washington from meeting President Volodymyr Zelensky in Ukraine
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I think we've got the best chance since I've been coming here in the last five years to get Putin to the peace table
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In what would prove to be his final public remarks, Lindsey Graham there telling reporters in Kiev that he believed he had finally secured President Trump's backing for tough new sanctions on Russia that could force the Kremlin leader's hand. SEN
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WE'VE REACHED AGREEMENT WITH THE WHITE HOUSE ON A VERSION OF THE RUSSIAN SANCTIONS BILL
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THAT THEY WILL SUPPORT. IT MEANS IT'S GOING TO BECOME LAW. SO WHEN I GET BACK TO WASHINGTON, I'M GOING TO GO WITH SENATOR BLUMENTHAL TO THE REPUBLICAN
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AND DEMOCRATIC LEADER TO SEE IF WE CAN FIND TIME TO MOVE THIS RUSSIAN SANCTIONS PACKAGE
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THAT WOULD GIVE TOOLS TO PRESIDENT TRUMP TO HELP END THIS WAR
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Senator Graham did not live to get that opportunity, although he did brief the president by phone
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on his meetings in Kiev hours before he collapsed. He just landed from Ukraine
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I said, that's a long trip to make. He sounded a little tired, but perfect, but a little bit tired
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And the president told NBC that six hours later, he then got another call from a senior member of the senator's staff
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I got a message about one o in the morning from one of the people at his office that he had passed away I said you guys I just can believe it He was like a member of the family to me
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It's very tough, actually. It's amazing. Mr. President. He was such an advocate
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He was, you know, if he wanted to get something. And, you know, he had a unique ability
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He was able to deal with Democrats and Republicans. If I had a problem, a real problem, I wouldn't often ask
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But if I had a problem with a Democrat, he could work it out. That ability to work across the political divide in Washington, D.C.
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was a result of Lindsey Graham's 30 years on Capitol Hill. He arrived as a member of the House of Representatives in 1996
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a simpler time in American politics. South Carolina voters then elevated him to the Senate in 2003
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where he quickly became thick as thieves with fellow Republican Senator John McCain
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Democratic Senator Joe Lieberman, who of course was Al Gore's running mate in the 2000 presidential election
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When Donald Trump first ran for the presidency, Lindsey Graham tried to stop him
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running his own campaign for the party's presidential nomination instead. He's a race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot
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He doesn't represent my party. He doesn't represent the values that the men and women who wear the uniform are fighting for
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But once Republicans embraced Trump and he beat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election
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Lindsey Graham was among the first to genuflect before him, prostrating himself in order to flatter the new president and secure his backing
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At times, his fealty was tested no more so than on January the 6th, 2001, 2021
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when the president's supporters ransacked Capitol Hill in an effort to overturn Joe Biden election win the previous November But even then the senator gave Trump a get card It breaks my heart that my friend a president of a consequence
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would allow yesterday to happen. And it will be a major part of his presidency
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It was a self-inflicted wound. It was going too far. And here's the one thing I can say
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the next two weeks can begin to right the ship depending on how the president behaves
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When he took to the floor of the Senate and recognized Joe Biden's election win as legitimate
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he enraged Trump's supporters and for a while they dogged his footsteps
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Lindsay Graham, you are a traitor to the country. It's going to be like this forever
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forever, the rest of your life. But over the last decade, as Trump's
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Make America Great Again movement cemented its power over the Republican Party
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Senator Graham often found himself doubling down to the point where he became a pastiche of himself
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sacrificing his own credibility, constantly enabling a president who demanded total loyalty
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yet failed to offer very much of it by return. Senator Graham, a foreign policy hawk down to his toes
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sounding almost bereft on television earlier this year when he realized that Trump's promise to topple the Iranian regime
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and free the people of Iran was not going to be fulfilled
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President Trump's resolve is not the question. The question is, when we do an operation like this
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should it be bigger or smaller? I'm in the camp of bigger
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Time will tell. So I hopeful and optimistic that the regime days are numbered He did not live to see the fall of the Iranian government despite his constant efforts to try and stop Trump from going wobbly
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He relentlessly championed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, fuming over all efforts to brand the conflict in Gaza a war crime or a genocide. Hamas
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he believed, should be erased from the face of the earth, whatever the cost to Palestinian
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civilians. And when it came to Ukraine, he was fervently on the side of President Zelensky
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and his European allies, including the UK. And he may have played a role in President Trump's
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announcement only last week that he will soon allow Kiev to make Patriot missiles locally in
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Ukraine to boost their defence against Russian aggression. Elon Musk's ex today is awash with
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entirely unproven conspiracy theories suggesting that Russia had a hand in Senator Graham's death
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Even the head of the FBI, Kash Patel, appeared to indicate yesterday that he believed some kind
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of investigation might be warranted. As with Anne Widdecombe on this side of the pond, many of the
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senator's opponents have proved unwilling to be charitable in the hours after his death. How our
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societies have changed. But a study in contrasts came this weekend from Senator Cory Booker of New
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Jersey, a Democrat who worked on prison reform legislation with Lindsey Graham
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When he was aligned, when he would be in the right place at the right time, man, he could
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get things done that other people couldn't and bring a lot of light and new possibilities
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to the efforts. I am stunned at Lindsey Graham's death. Many of his fellow Democrats may take issue with that, but Lindsey Graham went to his
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grave a bundle of contradictions, a man who chose to become an enigma at the knees
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of President Donald Trump
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