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US Republican Senator Lindsey Graham dies aged 71 after 'brief and sudden illness' Shortly after his death was announced, Donald Trump called Graham "one of the greatest people and senators I have known". It comes just days after President Trump claimed that the Iran War is a 'tremendous military success' after announcing that the US would again strike the country following the collapse of the ceasefire. Listen to the full show on the all-new LBC App: https://app.af.lbc.co.uk/btnc/thenewlbcapp #simonmarks #donaldtrump #whitehouse #republican #news #politics #debate #senator #president #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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Now on the program, we're going to cast our eyes overseas for a few moments because we learned earlier this morning of the death of Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a fixture on Capitol Hill for a quarter of a century and an influential and hawkish foreign policy voice in President Trump's ear, even though initially he loathed the man who would come to reshape Republican politics
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Joining me now live on the program is Greg Swenson from Republicans Abroad
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Greg Swenson, it's great to have you on the program today. This is very surprising news
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I should say Greg Swenson is the chair of Republicans Overseas. Greg, this is very surprising news from Washington, D.C
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it seems that Lindsey Graham died suddenly on Capitol Hill shortly after returning to Washington
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from a meeting with President Volodymyr Zelensky in Ukraine. I mean, his loss is not only going to
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be felt in Washington by his fellow Republicans and by President Trump. It's also going to be
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sorely felt in Kiev, in Tel Aviv, and arguably in Tehran, because he was very supportive of both
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the Ukrainians and the Israelis, and he was very intent on President Trump overturning the Iranian
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regime, which, of course, up until now, he has not done. Good morning. What's your reaction to
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all of this? Yeah, you bring up a good point, and I think you're right. I mean, on two counts. One
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he was a fixture in Washington and surely a reliable conservative voice in the Senate and
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also in the party. You know, he was definitely on the right side of the party or the more
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conservative wing of the party and the more hawkish wing. So, yeah, I think he had a great
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influence on the president in terms of this Iran conflict, in terms of his support for
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Ukraine and sometimes disagreed with the president. But that's OK. That's that's healthy
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But I do think he was a great influence in U.S. foreign policy, that's for sure
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I mean, you talk about him being a reliably conservative voice. I mean, I can remember the halcyon days when Lindsey Graham and John McCain, the late senator
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from Arizona were the best of mates and the closest of collegial allies And of course John McCain was cut from a very different cloth Yeah you right I think the Senator Graham
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had a gift for, you know, getting along with people. He's, you know, remarkably funny. He was
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you know, a very likable person. And so I think he could get along with other senators that maybe
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didn't agree with him 100 percent, 100 percent of the time. But, you know, he was able to, you know
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disagree with people, but also be very collegial. And I think, you know, that was a kind of a
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throwback to the old days of the Senate. And I think that he'll be missed for that reason as well
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I mean, to the extent that he was an influence on President Trump, as I say, he was really
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driving President Trump to go all the way and overthrow the Iranian regime. Without that voice
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in Donald Trump's, he was very critical of the Memorandum of Understanding. I mean
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And he had to be talked down off the ledge by, I think it was either Jared Kushner or Steve Witkoff
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I believe Steve Witkoff had a long conversation with Senator Graham. I mean, the absence of that voice in Donald Trump's ear, do you think that makes it less likely that we're going to see fresh conflict against the Iranians
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I don't think so. I mean, you know, the president listens to a lot of different voices or advisors and takes that advice
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And he's you know, I think he's pretty well known for that. But but I do think that the president ultimately makes his own decisions
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He you know, he always tries diplomacy. He tried it even before the strikes on the nuclear facilities back in June of 25
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He tried it before this conflict started. He's always tried to go to diplomacy first
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And then I think when he when he went to diplomacy during the ceasefire, you know, I think Lindsey Graham had just some vision that, you know, maybe
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And I think he's turned out to be right that, you know, you can't negotiate with the lunatic fringe of the regime
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And so I think, you know, that he but again, the president and Jared and Steve, you know, we're sort of more prone to try diplomacy, even if it hasn't worked out
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Well and the president is keeping the door open for that diplomacy to continue Let me take you back to what happened in Ankara this week A couple of quite extraordinary things that the president said back to back with one another First of all of course his excoriation of the new leadership in Iran Is the ceasefire over Is the ceasefire done Is the MOU dead
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It's a very interesting question. To me, I think it's over. I don't want to deal with them anymore
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They're scum. You know what scum is? They're scum. They're sick people. They're led by sick people
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and they're vicious, violent people. Now, he was seated alongside the NATO Secretary General Mark Reuter
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when he made those comments, and then he gestured to Mr. Reuter as he expressed frustration
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that he says he's experiencing at the hands of the Iranians. If I make a deal with him, we have a deal, and he goes out, he talks
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We make a deal. Everyone's agreed. No nuclear weapon. We make a deal. They go outside, talk to the press
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They say, we never even talked about it. There's something wrong with them. They're cuckoo. I mean, that's a man, Greg Swenson
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who's not going to be able to negotiate a deal with the Iranians because he doesn't have
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the diplomatic experience, guile or patience to bring it across the finishing line, isn't it
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Well, I'm not sure I'd agree with that completely. I mean, the president's obviously frustrated
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right? And as I said, he always wants to, you know, he always chooses diplomacy first and then
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only uses military action or kinetic action when he's forced to or when it's absolutely necessary
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Is that true? I mean, he chose kinetic action first against Venezuela. And he's basically in
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that clip there expressing frustration with the fact that the Iranians don't negotiate like his
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property mogul mates down in Mar-a-Lago. I mean, this isn't a business. I mean
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there's a business aspect to it, of course. But this is a geostrategic nuclear deal that the first
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time around, the Iran nuclear deal took years of really focused, detailed, specialized negotiations
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to bring across the line. He hasn't got the he's not got the appetite for, has he
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Well, I think he does. I mean, the fact that he's not a career diplomat, I think, is refreshing
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You know, the fact that he's got business people, you know, working in diplomacy is a healthy thing
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It a good thing And so I not I very confident in the president that he won necessarily change his views because he doesn have Lindsey Graham you know advising him anymore I think he you know it pretty clear that the the lunatic regime they don really work on the basis of rationality And I think that what frustrating the president So
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unfortunately for the people of Iran, I think kinetic action is probably, you know, inevitable
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Right. Except three weeks ago, President Trump was describing that lunatic regime as being made up of
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very rational people. I want to come back to the news of Lindsey Graham's death
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But tie it to the fact that also missing from action in Washington, D.C., because he's, we believe, gravely ill, is Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky
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with those two votes not being available to President Trump, his insistence that the Save
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America Act, which he wants to pass in order to make sure that people have to prove that they are
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American citizens and provide I.D. when they vote in the midterm elections, there's no possibility
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that that's going to pass the Senate now, is there? I'm not sure because Mitch McConnell voted
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against it, firstly. So that's not a missing vote. Yes, you're right. Lindsey Graham would be a key
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element to that. But I think he'll be replaced quickly because the governor in South Carolina
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will appoint a conservative senator, that's for sure. And so I'm not sure it changes the metrics
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too much on that. I think more importantly, we still have two or three other Republican holdouts
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for an issue that polls at 80. You know, it's actually popular with Democrats as well
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So it's frustrating. But I think it's not that popular with Democrats
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I mean, they voted against it in the House of Representatives. No, the Democrat people, the people that vote for those same Democrats actually favor the bill
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And so it's really a shame that you have the obstructionist Democrats
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but then you have four senators who just have had issues with President Trump, including Mitch McConnell
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All right. Well, we don't have time at the moment, Greg, to discuss states' rights and the importance thereof
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as they run their own elections. But I'm very grateful to you for joining me on the program today
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That's Greg Swenson, the chair of Republicans Overseas, reacting to the news today of the death of Senator Lindsey Graham
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the sudden death of Lindsey Graham, an influential foreign policy voice in President Trump's ear
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He died in Washington at the age of 71
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