Already the denunciations of Senator Lindsey Graham, who died at 71, are piling up. Former Republican operative Steve Schmidt’s verdict was not untypical. He declared on X that Graham not only “lacked a moral core,” but also found relevance “as a cast member in the most malignant reality show ever made.”
There’s never been a bummer rap. Graham’s moral center was never in greater evidence during the Trump era. Had Graham not aligned himself with Trump, American foreign policy would look vastly different over the past several years. Rather than delivering pompous, empty speeches like former senator Jeff Flake, he made a conscious decision to influence Trump rather than flee the field of fight. And he often succeeded. As Sam Tanenhaus, the author of a valuable new biography of William F. Buckley, Jr., told me, “what many call cowardice looks like a strategic choice. If you believe in government, you do all you can to make a difference. Graham was able to remain his own man when others either caved or walked – on foreign policy most obviously, but he also gave a smart and adroit speech tearing apart the stolen-election conspiracies.”
Graham was the last of the three amigos – their ranks included John McCain and Joe Lieberman – who unabashedly championed an assertive America abroad, one that supported democracy movement, whenever and wherever it could. The three amigos were, in other words, foreign-policy hawks who believed that America should align itself with western democracies to fight the bad guys.
They overperformed when it came to the Middle East where the very war that they backed against Iraq in 2003 triggered a backlash against intervention. The result was the rise of the America First movement, which Donald Trump rode to the White House – only to end up mired in a fresh war in Iran. But Graham’s adjurations to Trump to take out the regime in Tehran were fully consistent with his previous stances. The one thing he was not guilty of was opportunism.
Then there was Ukraine. Graham never flinched, never waffled, never wavered. It was fitting that his last trip was to Ukraine, which he valiantly defended as a senator. Graham knew that freedom was on the line. His final mission was to work with Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal to ensure that bipartisan Russia sanctions legislation was passed by Congress. It should now honor his memory by approving the sanctions legislation as soon as possible. As Melinda Haring, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, told me, “He was Ukrainian to his core. There are so few members of Congress living with the same passion for freedom and democracy that Lindsey and John McCain embodied.”
Writing in the Washington Post, Meghan McCain observed, “There are few memories I have of my father’s political career and my life accompanying it that don’t somehow involve Lindsey. They, along with fellow senator Joe Lieberman, spent decades of their lives traveling together, championing the same causes on the Senate floor, spending holidays together and fighting for their version of the American Dream.”
If South Carolina Governor H. R. McMaster selects Congressman Joe Wilson to replace Graham, he will have chosen a successor who shares his general outlook on foreign affairs, particularly when it comes to Russia. As Ukraine stymies Russia, Graham deserves praise for helping to uphold America’s alliances with NATO and for ensuring that Trump never abandoned Kyiv. Will Graham come to be seen as a great senator?
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