The death of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., has left his close friend and ally Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., as the leader of the “maverick” caucus in the Senate — a positive development for the White House, since Graham has a much better relationship with President Trump.
Graham served as a bridge between Trump and McCain during a tense week in which the president was reluctant to pay tribute to the late senator, with whom he had often quarreled, and was effectively shut out of the official memorial services.
“It bothers me greatly when the president says things about John McCain,” Graham admitted to CBS News. “It pisses me off to no end, and I let the president know it.” But he still won’t have the same contentious relationship with Trump that McCain did.
“I am not going to give up on the idea of working with this president,” Graham added. “The best way I can honor John McCain is to help my country.” And help Trump: he became the first senator to suggest it would be appropriate for the president to replace Attorney General Jeff Sessions with someone who had his confidence.
McCain reportedly advised Graham to help Trump when he could, but avoid being caught up in the president’s “bullshit.” Multiple sources close to the White House told the Washington Examiner they appreciated the reinforcements.
“I think Lindsey Graham is particularly upset by the dossier,” said former Trump aide Sam Nunberg, referring to the opposition research document compiled by British spy Christopher Steele that later became at least the partial basis for surveillance warrants during the campaign. “Nobody has been better at attacking the FBI’s hypocritical treatment of Trump compared to [Hillary] Clinton.”
Graham has gone so far as to call for the appointment of a second special counsel in addition to Robert Mueller to investigate the early phases of the Trump-Russia probe conducted by the FBI. “The criminal investigation of the Clinton campaign was a joke. When it came to the Trump campaign, it was corrupt, it was biased and I think unethical,” the senator told Fox News last month. “These investigations against Trump were corrupt at the core.”
“I think Lindsey Graham may even be a good as attorney general, replacing Jeff Sessions,” Nunberg said.
It wasn’t always this way. Graham’s short-lived Republican presidential campaign consisted mainly of taking shots at Trump. The two are opposites on immigration and, to a lesser extent, foreign policy, the substantive issues — as opposed to personal insults — that created the president’s rift with McCain.
“We weaken our greatness when we confuse our patriotism with tribal rivalries that have sown resentment and hatred and violence in all the corners of the globe,” McCain said in a statement to be read after his death. “We weaken it when we hide behind walls, rather than tear them down, when we doubt the power of our ideals, rather than trust them to be the great force for change they have always been.”
There were insults exchanged between Trump and Graham too. The South Carolinian dubbed the reality TV sweeping through his party’s presidential primaries as a “jackass” and a “kook.” Trump called Graham an “idiot” and derided his low standing in the polls.
“If we nominate Trump,” Graham predicted during the campaign, “we will get destroyed … and we will deserve it.” Trump publicly gave out Graham’s personal cell phone number.
Trump and Graham have famously since reconciled. McCain’s passing tested the Trump-Graham relationship, given the president’s reticence about saying anything nice about his former foe, and may make it more important than ever.
“It’s possible that nobody’s navigated Trump better than Lindsey Graham,” said Alex Conant, a Republican strategist. “He has forged an influential relationship with the president, without compromising any of his positions. It’s really impressive.”
While McCain continued to take shots at Trump’s “half-baked, spurious nationalism” all the way up to the final statement he prepared to have read upon his death, Graham tried to reconcile his views with Trump’s. “He may have these hawkish stances on national security but in a lot of ways they’re in sync with the Trump administration,” said Nunberg.
“McCain and Graham always had different styles, even if they were ideologically aligned,” said Conant, a former communications adviser to Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., who was frequently allied with both men. “Graham is evidence that the GOP can still be a big tented party.”
No group in Washington is more important to Trump’s future than Senate Republicans. Not only do they hold the keys to his ability to shape the executive and judicial branches, but they are his last line of defense if Mueller reports wrongdoing by the president to Congress and House Democrats decide they want to pursue impeachment.
Trump’s leading GOP critics will be gone from that chamber next year, whether Republicans retain the majority or not. In addition to McCain, Sens. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., and Bob Corker, R-Tenn., are also leaving. Both Flake and Corker retired after conflict with the president complicated their reelection chances.
That doesn’t mean Trump is out of the woods yet. If Graham is a friend of the White House, there are other Republican senators who are willing to take on McCain’s more antagonistic role. Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., is one. And Trump backers worry about one who hasn’t arrived in Washington yet.
“You need to watch out for Mitt Romney,” warned Nunberg. Romney is running to succeed retiring Trump loyalist Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and could become the focal point of anti-Trump Republicanism in the Senate.
“Mitt Romney would happily vote to impeach the president,” Nunberg said. “I think he ought to be asked that question now — would he under any circumstances vote to impeach the president?”
