Just two days after his 71st birthday, Lindsey Graham—senior senator from South Carolina and one of Trump’s most-outspoken allies—has died.
Details on the specific circumstances of Graham’s passing are scarce. But as Eric McDaniel writes for NPR, he apparently died of an as-yet-undisclosed “cardiac event.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., died late Saturday night following a ‘brief and sudden illness,’ according to a statement released by his office. He was 71. His office did not immediately reply to a request for information on his cause of death. But audio reviewed by NPR shows that emergency services personnel responded to a call of cardiac arrest at Graham’s Washington home Saturday night.
Eric McDaniel for NPR
The well-wishes and platitudes have already started rolling in for Graham, including one from “beloved friend” Bibi Netanyahu. Much ink will be spilled on his career and (lack of a better term) “advocacy” in pushing the Trump “cause”—which in turn spurred quite an off-again, on-again “bromance” between the two.
The South Carolina attorney and senator was famously name-checked in a meeting between Rudy Giuliani and former Ukrainian politician Andriy Derkach, who was later outed as Russian agent while “serving” in Ukraine’s parliament. Trump also gave out Graham’s personal cell number in 2015, apparently as retribution for saying mean things about him.
But perhaps the most-famous errand Lindsey Graham undertook on Trump’s behalf were repeated calls to Georgia officials in 2020 asking “technical questions” about ballots—questions that secretary of state Brad Raffensperger said sounded like a request to toss out votes. “He asked if the ballots could be matched back to the voters,” Raffensperger told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer. “And I got the sense it implied that you could throw those out… if you look at the counties with the highest frequent error of signatures.”
Much more will come out in the coming days and weeks about Graham’s passing and the team at TrumpFile will follow developments closely.
AUTHOR FOOTNOTE
Thus concludes our straight-news recap of Lindsey’s sudden passing. Buckle up, dearhearts, it gets bumpy from here.
Like election terrorist Cleta Mitchell, spectacular traitor Misha Flynn and others, Lindsey Graham came within inches of getting indicted by Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis in Georgia. According to an unbylined Associated Press wire story picked up by WHYY (there were many news bulletins about this, for the record) a Willis-convened Special Grand Jury recommended charging many of those and other known agitators, but she ultimately decided against it.
A report released on Friday revealed that a special grand jury investigating efforts to overturn Georgia’s 2020 presidential election results recommended indictments against a much larger group than Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis ultimately charged, including one current and two former U.S. senators. The nine-page report showed jurors recommended charges against 39 people, compared to the 18 who were charged along with Donald Trump. The names of those not indicted included Republican U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, former U.S. Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue of Georgia and former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn.
Associated Press via WHYY
What’s notable about Willis’ decision not to charge Graham is that we may never know why: District Attorneys are apparently not required—unlike federal counterparts, where it is apparently a “norm” or “custom”—to file declination memos explaining why they did not go forward with charges. (Of course, Special “Revenge” Counsel John Durham was asked in an open hearing by Rep. Zoe Lofgren why he refused to follow a lead on Donald’s criminal conduct he received during a trip to Italy. Mr. Durham resigned in early 2021 and did not provide any details about the tip. Nothing is known about that situation to present day. And that, as the saying goes, is how the one-sided cookie crumbles. More on that in a moment.)
But I digress. There’s a not-insignificant part of me that wanted to throw an entire library-worth of books at Lindsey for what he attempted in Georgia; there would’ve been, however, certain complications in charging a sitting senator, even one carpetbagging/freelancing in Georgia while stationed in South Carolina.
Most notably, the Constitution’s “Speech or Debate” clause protecting sitting members from prosecution. Did Lindsey undertake his lil’ favors knowing ahead of time he would rely on those protections? We may never know.
And no, intrepid reader, I’m not aware of the provision in the Constitution (the document right wingers pretend to care about) that mentions “thou shalt ring state officials on behalf of a felon to overturn elections.” Because there isn’t one.
But you will be shocked to learn that “Speech or Debate” protections only extend, at least in modern-day practice, to Republicans. (I’m fully aware of the axiom “it’s only illegal if Dems do it.”) Prior to her sacking, Pamela Jo Bondi “warned” Jasmine Crockett to “tread carefully” when dragging the likes of Elon Musk. No speech protections for you, Rep. Crockett!
Or how about a more apples-to-apples example of senator Alex Padilla attending a Kristi Noem press conference to—gasp!—ask questions of the now-sacked DHS secretary? ICE Becky refused to answer written questions sent through official channels, which is why Padilla turned up at her junket in the first place. Did Padilla enjoy the same protections apparently afforded Lindsey Graham?
Assault and battery is the calling card for the Trump Regime 2.0 regardless of one’s position, so no, Senator Padilla wasn’t afforded “Speech or Debate” accommodations and was tossed to the ground and handcuffed.
Final point for this bulletin: I examined initial-media coverage of Lindsey Graham’s passing, mainly because I wanted to see how many early reports mentioned his attempted (and failed) 2020-election interference—or the softer “meddling,” as Beltway-media types often prefer.
Of the 16 sources I looked at (including AP, CNN, Reuters, Politico, Wapo and others) two mentioned the malfeasance: Politico and Atlanta News First. That’s a near-90% omission rate. Notably, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (arguably our fair city’s “paper of record”) has thus far run only a wire-service report and put no local resources on the story.
The Graham passing also comes amidst deepening mystery involving the status of Mitch McConnell who is, as of this writing, in an unknown state of infirmary.
