Stunning news out of Washington, DC: Sen Lindsey Graham died Saturday night at age 71. The office of the South Carolina Republican said only that he "passed away from a brief and sudden illness," reports Politico. The Washington Post reports that emergency responders were called to his Capitol Hill home to treat a man with chest pain about 8:30pm. Responders said after arriving that they were performing CPR and that the man was in cardiac arrest. In a Truth Social post, President Trump called Graham, one of his staunchest allies on Capitol Hill, "one of the greatest people and Senators I have ever known," and labeled him "a true American Patriot."
Graham, first elected to the House in 1994 and the Senate in 2002, became one of the GOP's most visible figures on foreign policy and national security. He was in Kyiv on Friday meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as he pushed for new sanctions on Russia, and he was scheduled to appear on Meet the Press Sunday. Once a Trump critic who ran for the GOP nomination himself in 2016, Graham later emerged as a key defender of the president, opposing both impeachment efforts. He did break with Trump at times, notably with his vote to certify the 2020 election results and with his criticism of the mass pardon for Capitol rioters.
South Carolina's Republican governor, Henry McMaster, will appoint someone to serve out Graham's term, which runs through January. Graham fended off five challengers last month to win his primary in a bid for a fifth term, notes the New York Times. In the meantime, Graham's death trims the GOP's majority in the chamber to 52-47.
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