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Sen. Lindsey Graham died suddenly over the weekend at age 71, sending shockwaves through Washington. Graham, the senior senator from South Carolina, lived an extraordinary and consequential life. He will be remembered for many things, including his multifaceted service to the nation, his intense patriotism, and his sense of humor.
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He exhibited the latter two in a single social media post published just days before his death. At Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s funeral in Tehran, pro-regime stooges held placards wishing death upon various objects of their fanatical hatred. One poster featured Graham’s face, with crosshairs trained on his forehead. “Target Lindsey Graham,” the caption read. “Sooner or later your heads will roll.”
Graham shared it on his X feed, writing, “at least they used a good photo of me.” He added, “Judge me by my enemies.”
On the latter point, there is no dispute. Graham loathed America’s enemies, and the feeling was mutual. What a tribute. Graham was a complicated figure who accumulated many friends, and his fair share of detractors, in politics — some of whom fell into both columns. He was generally a happy warrior who viewed his opponents as simply that: opponents, to be debated and engaged, not enemies.
The harsher distinction was reserved for anti-American tyrants, terrorists, and other nemeses of the United States. Graham explicitly asked to be judged by his enemies, and it’s a test he passed with flying colors. On the Fourth of July, he shared a stirring video honoring our country’s 250th birthday.
“One nation, under God. Here’s to the next 250 years of freedom,” he reflected.
Given the stunning and unexpected nature of his passing at a relatively young age, which his office described as the result of a “brief and sudden illness,” one silver lining in the tragedy is that he lived to celebrate that milestone for the nation he loved so deeply.
Graham was a thoroughly political animal. He might be described as a center-right conservative and foreign policy uber-hawk who, despite his generally partisan voting record, consistently pursued and cultivated a spirit of bipartisanship. Many of the condolences that have poured in from many of Graham’s Democratic colleagues have warmly referred to him as “my friend,” and it feels as though that word isn’t being deployed in the hollow, polite way politicians often wield it.
The gentleman from the Palmetto State collected friends easily, often surprising critics by winning their affection and grudging respect with his genuine charm. This winsome and sunny nature is what made his occasional flashes of fierce, partisan indignation all the more notable, the most memorable of which flared in 2018.
That moment was foreshadowed more than a decade prior, in a similar setting.
During the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, multiple Senate Democrats relentlessly and very personally hammered the nominee. Some of the worst offenders were Joe Biden of Delaware and Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts. Their aggressive grilling was typical of Democrats’ escalatory and venomous approach to the judicial wars, but it was still too much to bear for Alito’s wife. Worn down after witnessing the nastiness and character assassination directed at her husband over many hours, she fled the hearing room in tears.
Graham channeled the disgust of many observers in an emotional apology to the nominee: “Judge Alito, I am sorry that you’ve had to go through this,” he said. “I am sorry that your family has had to sit here and listen to this.”
Twelve years later, Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats outdid themselves during the appalling confirmation circus surrounding the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh. With few exceptions, their conduct was unforgivably disgusting. Each and every one of them joined Democratic leader Chuck Schumer in formally demanding Kavanaugh withdraw, based on the insane, implausible, utterly unproven (and later discredited) ravings of a lunatic smear merchant and her unscrupulous, criminal attorney.
It was a disgrace. Once again, for the record, not a single weaponized claim against Kavanaugh was ever corroborated, and several were affirmatively disproven. Having sat through the opposition party’s cynical, sickening, disorienting display for days on end, one Republican senator finally blew a gasket. Graham’s indignation was visceral, palpable, and righteous.
Speaking for millions, Graham addressed the nominee: “You’ve got nothing to apologize for. When you see [Justices] Sotomayor and Kagan, tell them that Lindsey said hello because I voted for them.”
He then laid into the Democrats on the panel: “I would never do to them what you’ve done to this guy. This is the most unethical sham since I’ve been in politics. And if you really wanted to know the truth, you sure as hell wouldn’t have done what you’ve done to this guy.”
He wasn’t through: “Boy, you all want power. God, I hope you never get it. I hope the American people can see through this sham… Here’s my understanding, if you lived a good life people would recognize it, like the American Bar Association has, the gold standard. His integrity is absolutely unquestioned. He is very circumspect in his personal conduct, harbors no biases or prejudices. He’s entirely ethical, is a really decent person. He is warm, friendly, unassuming. He’s the nicest person — the ABA. The one thing I can tell you should be proud of — Ashley, you should be proud of this — that you raised a daughter who had the good character to pray for Dr. [Christine Blasey] Ford. To my Republican colleagues, if you vote no, you’re legitimizing the most despicable thing I have seen in my time in politics. You want this seat? I hope you never get it.”
Graham concluded his justifiably strident, angry, cathartic remarks by once again turning his attention to Kavanaugh.
“I hope you’re on the Supreme Court, that’s exactly where you should be,” he said. “And I hope that the American people will see through this charade. And I wish you well. And I intend to vote for you, and I hope everybody who’s fair-minded will.”
GRAHAM WAS ONE OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL, IF UNLIKELY, LEADERS IN TRUMP’S WASHINGTON
Graham voted to confirm Kavanaugh, along with a majority of his colleagues. Kavanaugh has served on the Supreme Court ever since. Months after this flashpoint, voters punished Democrats by making the Senate redder, even in an otherwise blue-tinted election cycle. Graham’s vocal leadership and moral clarity contributed to these just outcomes.
Over the course of an extraordinary and consequential life, this episode was arguably Lindsey Graham’s finest hour. The Senate and the nation have lost a character, a statesman, and a patriot. May he rest in peace.
