‘Relentless’: Why Lindsey Graham was DC’s ‘ultimate politician’

[0:00] South Carolina has now appointed Senator Lindsey Graham's sister Darlene Graham-Nordone [0:05] as his temporary replacement in the Senate two days after the lawmakers' sudden death. [0:10] President Trump took to social media yesterday to recommend Republican Governor Henry McMaster [0:15] appoint Graham's sister to serve the remainder of Graham's term, which expires in January, [0:20] writing, quote, [0:21] This would be a fabulous tribute to Lindsey, who loved her dearly. [0:25] Darlene is nine years younger than her brother and has never held public office. [0:28] Her parents died before she reached the age of 14, and Lindsey Graham later became her legal guardian. [0:35] She is currently the commissioner of the South Carolina Commission for the Blind [0:38] and serves on the state's Workforce Development Board. [0:41] She will serve in the Senate role ahead of the special primary later this summer [0:45] to decide the new Republican nominee for the Senate seat. [0:50] So, J. Martin, you've got a new piece out in Politico. [0:52] Remembering the life and the legacy of Lindsey Graham, [0:55] the headline calls Graham a politician in full. [0:59] I know you covered him closely for a long time. [1:01] Joe's known him for decades. [1:03] What are sort of your memories of him, [1:05] and how will he be remembered in Washington and South Carolina? [1:09] Well, as the ultimate politician, he was relentless. [1:14] You know, there are a handful of people in public life that you guys know, [1:18] that I know, who they, every day, they just, they go, go, go. [1:23] Rahm Emanuel, obviously, is the, you know, democratic version of this. [1:27] Lindsey Graham comes to mind. [1:29] There was a sort of hustle. [1:31] A great American story, right? [1:33] He grew up in the back of a pool hall in rural South Carolina [1:36] and gets to the heights of global power [1:38] with presidents, prime ministers, and royalty. [1:41] And so it's a great American story. [1:43] But it's also just the classic American tale of somebody [1:46] who was going to hustle their way to the top. [1:49] He was married to his work. [1:51] And, you know, he never had a family, obviously. [1:53] He was constantly traveling, [1:56] constantly acting, [1:57] well, he is the sort of ambassador without portfolio, [2:00] self-assigning roles. [2:02] One day he could be the head of the Senate Campaign Committee. [2:05] The next day he could be the top judicial advisor to the president. [2:09] After that, he'd be the de facto envoy to the Middle East. [2:13] He didn't wait for an assignment. [2:15] He rode to the sound of the guns. [2:17] And there's less of that in Congress today. [2:20] There's less freelancing, less entrepreneurship. [2:23] But he really embraced that. [2:25] And just lastly, he did it with gusto. [2:27] This was somebody, well, I mean, you liked or hated his politics. [2:30] Man, he was having a good time. [2:32] He was so full of joy. [2:35] I'll just end with this. [2:36] I interviewed him at the Munich Security Conference, Willie, in February. [2:41] And he was joking with me that he was spending so much time [2:44] shuttling between the Gulf states in Jerusalem, [2:47] trying to get the Saudi-Israel normalization done, [2:53] that he was tempted to open a Chick-fil-A in Israel. [2:57] But he noted, of course, it'd be closed on Saturdays, [2:59] not Sundays in the Holy Land. [3:02] There you go. [3:03] Lindsay, you are right. [3:05] Lindsay just worked around the clock. [3:08] I mean, any Codell that there was, Lindsay was overseas. [3:13] He was on it. [3:14] He was on the Codell. [3:16] He was, you know, anytime there was a dinner, [3:20] Capitol Grill or anywhere where, you know, [3:23] I'd go out once every three months and Lindsay'd be there, [3:26] you know, with a group of people around him. [3:28] He worked around the clock. [3:30] You know, Mike, Lindsay, though, I mean, this, Lindsay's story really is the story of the Republican Party [3:37] from, well, the day that I stepped into Congress until the day he died, [3:42] because he was a shapeshifter. [3:47] When, you know, when I was there, there were, there were 12 of us [3:50] that raised hell every day about balancing the budget. [3:54] And Lindsay was there with us. [3:56] He was one of the 12. [3:58] And it was intimidating. [4:01] You had, like, the most powerful people in Washington screaming at you and, you know, yelling. [4:06] And, you know, we got called down one time to HC5, [4:10] and Gingrich and everybody else were yelling at the 12 of us, [4:15] made a stand in front of the entire caucus. [4:17] And Steve Largent got up. [4:23] Gingrich said, you all, you know, explain what you have done. [4:28] You have shut down the House. [4:29] You have destroyed our majority. [4:32] You have humiliated the Republican Party. [4:35] Explain what you've done. [4:36] Steve Largent was the first person that came up. [4:39] And he said, you know, Newt, I used to catch balls across the middle, [4:46] arms fully extended. [4:47] I'd have 280-pound guys who not only could kill me, [4:52] but were actually trying to kill me. [4:55] Sometimes they got pretty close to doing it. [4:57] I'd be knocked out for hours at a time. [5:02] So, Newt, you can't intimidate me. [5:04] And he went on and gave a great speech. [5:07] Lindsay stood up next and said, my name's Lindsay Graham. [5:10] And, Newt, as you know, you can intimidate me. [5:14] And the whole place just erupted. [5:16] Yeah, that's who he was. [5:17] But then Lindsay went on and said, why, he was sticking with the 12 of us. [5:21] And we were going to continue to shut down bill after bill after bill after bill after bill [5:25] until they came up with a plan to balance the budget. [5:29] And so that was Lindsay Graham, 1995, 1996, 1997. [5:33] We were all sort of surprised when we went over to the Senate and he became John McCain's guy. [5:37] John, we all love John. [5:39] John was a war hero. [5:40] But he didn't care too much for us because we were always causing trouble, shutting down the house, [5:47] fighting too hard for balancing the budget. [5:48] But they got along and, you know, he was with a great honorable man, a public servant. [5:58] And then we saw him go to Donald Trump. [6:01] And so you can really, again, you can trace what I would consider to be the fall of the Republican Party [6:06] just based on the people that Lindsay associated himself with. [6:10] And, you know, but that said, I have wonderful memories of him, said a lot of tough things about him here. [6:18] But when I saw him at the 30th reunion, he was he was smiling, laughing, joking, which he always did. [6:26] He never took anything personally. [6:27] Very kind to my family. [6:28] And that was that was the guy he was.