Senate SCRAMBLES after Graham's death leaves major leadership vacancy

[0:01] Breaking news overnight. Republican South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham has died at 71 years old. [0:07] His office writing, quote, on the evening of Saturday, July 11th, U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham [0:12] passed away from a brief and sudden illness. Senator Graham's family appreciates prayers [0:17] this time and asks for privacy during this incredibly difficult period. [0:22] At this hour, no cause of death has been revealed, but police reportedly responded [0:26] to a cardiac arrest call at his home and were seen carrying a person away on a stretcher to an [0:32] awaiting ambulance. Senator Graham had just returned from Ukraine, where he met with Ukrainian [0:36] President Vladimir Zelensky in Kyiv as part of his efforts to end the war with Russia. [0:41] President Trump paying tribute to the longtime senator and his close ally. He posted, quote, [0:48] Senator Lindsey Graham, one of the greatest people and senators I have ever known, is dead. [0:53] He was always working and was a true American patriot. Lindsey will be greatly missed. [0:59] Details and arrangements to follow. So sad. And reactions pouring in from around the world. [1:04] Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu posting, quote, Israel has lost one of its greatest friends. [1:11] America has lost a patriot. Senate Majority Leader John Thune says, quote, his influence on the federal [1:16] judiciary, our national defense, and his beloved South Carolina will be felt for generations. [1:22] And in his home state, fellow South Carolina Senator Tim Scott writes, [1:27] Lindsey remained committed to public service and doing what he loved. [1:32] He always introduced levity and brought wit to the most challenging moments. [1:37] And Governor Henry McMaster remembers him as the fiercest of fighters for South Carolina [1:42] and America and a loyal and steadfast friend. [1:46] Lindsey Graham's fight for our country started long before he was elected to the Senate, [1:50] serving six and a half years as a U.S. Air Force military prosecutor and defense attorney. [1:54] Upon leaving the Air Force, he joined the South Carolina Air National Guard, [1:59] serving for another six years before joining the U.S. Air Force Reserves, [2:02] where he performed numerous short-term reserve duties in both Iraq and Afghanistan. [2:06] He retired at the rank of Colonel after 33 years in uniform. [2:11] The senator came from humble beginnings, being raised in central South Carolina, [2:15] where he lived in a single room with his family. [2:18] Graham then became the first in his family to attend college, [2:21] where he lost both his mother and his father within two years at the age of 20. [2:27] But this didn't stop his drive for the American dream, [2:29] taking on the responsibility of raising his 13-year-old sister, Darlene, [2:34] who he later adopted, and running his family business all while still in school. [2:39] Senator Lindsey Graham was 71 years old. [2:42] For more on his life and legacy, let's bring in chief congressional correspondent Chad Pergram. [2:47] Good morning, Chad. [2:48] It's sad news to wake up to, and I know you knew him well. [2:52] Yeah, I had just tried to talk to him a couple of weeks ago. [2:55] The Senate has been out this past week, and I was trying to get him. [2:58] I chased him out the Senate door, out to a car, and he was just in a hurry [3:02] and didn't have time to talk at that point, [3:04] because Lindsey Graham was always on the move, as you indicate. [3:07] He had just been to Ukraine. [3:09] It was very typical to hear from his office, you know, [3:12] that he was going to be in the Middle East, [3:14] or he was going to be in Europe or someplace, [3:16] and would we care to have an interview with him? [3:18] I mean, he was always in the middle of almost every policy debate. [3:22] And I think it was very striking that he had just been to Ukraine over the weekend here. [3:26] He had celebrated his 71st birthday on Thursday [3:29] and had met with Vladimir Zelenskyy in trying to figure out a way to end this war. [3:33] And this is what he had to say in Ukraine just a couple of days ago. [3:37] I've never been more optimistic than I am today [3:40] that we have the formula to end this war. [3:45] Help Ukraine be more lethal. [3:48] Let those supporting Russia to know [3:49] it's going to be a price to be paid if you keep doing it. [3:53] And to try to find an off-ramp, not to humiliate Putin, [3:58] but to end this war so that Ukraine will thrive and survive. [4:05] Now, here's what's interesting about Lindsey Graham. [4:08] You know, he had been a House member, [4:10] was elected to the House in the big Republican wave in 1995. [4:14] He kind of moved onto the national stage. [4:16] He was one of the House prosecutors [4:18] presenting the case of impeachment to the Senate in 1998, 1999 [4:24] when there was the Monica Lewinsky scandal with President Clinton. [4:28] Basically, what they did is they impeached in the House [4:30] and then they appoint these managers [4:32] to kind of prosecute the case before the Senate. [4:34] And he was one there. [4:35] He took over for Strom Thurmond, [4:37] who was the longtime 100-plus-aged senator in 2003. [4:42] Strom Thurmond retired from the Senate. [4:44] And so you basically had only two people in that Senate seat [4:47] since the mid-1950s. [4:49] Strom Thurmond had served in that seat for decades. [4:52] He retired at age 100. [4:54] And Lindsey Graham took over in early 2003. [4:58] The other thing that's always struck me about Lindsey Graham [5:00] is that he was at the center of every single policy debate, [5:04] whether it be Iran. [5:06] I remember talking to him the night before the airstrike started [5:09] because there was some question about whether or not in late February [5:12] they were going to continue or not. [5:14] I remember a lengthy conversation I had with him in 2005. [5:18] This is early 2005 when President George W. Bush [5:20] was trying to partially privatize Social Security. [5:24] And who was at the forefront of that? [5:25] It was Lindsey Graham. [5:27] I talked to a former aide of his just a few moments ago [5:29] who described him as having an alligator skin [5:32] and said, you know, he didn't take the criticism [5:34] that was sometimes lobbied, lobbied him personally, [5:38] but said that he always, you know, could kind of disarm people. [5:41] They said he probably could have been a stand-up comedian. [5:43] People just didn't realize how funny he was, you know, [5:47] when the camera lights turned off [5:48] or he was trying to talk to some people off to the side. [5:52] Now, here's what has to happen. [5:53] As we say, we look at what the Senate situation is right now. [5:57] We don't know the health condition of Mitch McConnell, [5:59] the former Senate majority leader who's been in the hospital for weeks. [6:02] The Senate is supposed to come back in the coming days here. [6:05] And so obviously they have to figure out, you know, what his status is. [6:08] But right now the Senate on the Republican side of the aisle is down to 51 votes. [6:13] They have trouble moving things through the Senate right now. [6:16] And so what will they do to replace him? [6:18] Under South Carolina law, we're told that, [6:20] and this is the process here, [6:22] that they would probably have to have an appointment. [6:24] Now, whether or not that's a caretaker, senator, [6:27] somebody who doesn't run. [6:28] Again, Lindsey Graham was on the ballot this fall. [6:31] He was running in the fall of 2026. [6:33] He had just secured the Republican nomination for another term. [6:36] So they would have to appoint somebody to the Senate. [6:38] I would imagine that's going to be a conversation [6:40] between Henry McMaster and also President Trump. [6:43] You know, who he wants in the Senate? [6:45] Do they want just a caretaker senator? [6:47] We have one caretaker senator right now. [6:49] Alan Armstrong, the Republican from Oklahoma, [6:52] who took over for Mark Wayne Mullen, [6:53] who is now the Homeland Security Secretary, of course. [6:56] And does that person, do they want that person to be a caretaker [6:59] or do they want that person to run in a primary? [7:02] I'm told that probably in about five to six weeks, [7:05] they would have to have another Republican primary [7:07] to determine who their nominee is. [7:09] And then that person, if they win in the fall, [7:12] would take over on January 3rd. [7:14] Here are the people I would look at in South Carolina. [7:17] I would look at Russell Fry, [7:18] the Republican representative from South Carolina. [7:21] I would also look at two members. [7:23] It's not a big delegation in South Carolina, [7:25] but I would look at two of the other members [7:28] who ran for governor, Nancy Mace, [7:31] and also Ralph Norman. [7:32] Now, both of them have had a little bit [7:34] of a fraught relationship with President Trump. [7:36] Now, whether or not that's something [7:38] that they can work out, we just don't know. [7:40] But operationally in the Senate, [7:42] this causes problems because Lindsey Graham [7:44] was the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee. [7:47] You've been hearing a lot of conversation [7:49] about them trying to do budget reconciliation 3.0. [7:52] This is another policy bill. [7:53] The Senate is looking a little more askance [7:56] at this compared to the House of Representatives, [7:58] but they'd have to have another budget committee chairman. [8:00] He's been a member of the Judiciary Committee [8:02] for a long time. [8:04] They have a confirmation hearing coming up [8:05] for Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general, [8:08] to become the attorney general, [8:09] and whether or not they could even get [8:11] Todd Blanche's nomination out of committee, [8:13] certainly not with those votes. [8:15] They probably wouldn't have that vote [8:16] this week at all, regardless of what happens [8:18] in the confirmation hearing. [8:19] But it makes it very, very tough operationally [8:22] to do things in the Senate. [8:24] And that's why we would probably look very quickly [8:25] for them to figure out, okay, [8:27] who do we appoint to the Senate, [8:29] even if that's somebody on a temporary basis? [8:31] And then who wants to run in that special election primary [8:34] on the Republican side, [8:36] probably sometime in late August, [8:38] maybe 1st of September at the latest, [8:40] but it's going to be very, very fast. [8:42] The other thing I would say about Lindsey Graham, [8:45] and again, you know, [8:46] I talk about just how he was always [8:48] at the center of so many issues. [8:50] I remember kind of chasing him [8:51] around the Capitol for a while. [8:53] I was working on a story that we aired [8:54] on Brett Baer's program some months back [8:57] about Section 230. [8:58] That's part of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 [9:01] that he and others think that we should get rid of [9:03] because it gives this shield to the telecom companies. [9:07] And some people believe that's what's contributed [9:08] to a lot of the social media ills that we have. [9:11] And he wants to get rid of that. [9:13] And again, just the fact, [9:14] the reason we were having trouble [9:15] scheduling the interview for so long [9:17] was because he was so deep in Iran, [9:19] he was so deep in dealing with Ukraine [9:21] and two or three other subjects [9:22] that he just didn't have the bandwidth, [9:24] even though he was very interested in that. [9:26] I remember I called him one night [9:27] and he said, yes, I want to do it, [9:29] but they were just, you know, [9:30] we were literally having trouble figuring out [9:32] when to schedule that interview. [9:34] We did it. We aired the story, [9:35] but it just shows you the breadth of different things [9:37] that he was involved in. [9:38] So Lindsey Graham, very sad news here [9:41] in Washington, dead unexpectedly [9:42] at the age of 71 years old here in Washington, D.C. [9:47] You did such a nice job [9:48] walking through the history of all this. [9:50] And I remember when Strom Thurmond retired, [9:53] everyone thought there was no way [9:54] anyone would be able to fill those shoes. [9:56] And of course, Lindsey Graham did that [9:59] and did it quite ably. [10:01] And as you point out, [10:02] covering a lot of a broad cross-section of issues. [10:06] You noted also that a lot of people thought [10:09] that, you know, he could have had a go [10:12] at being a stand-up comedian [10:13] because he could be very, very funny [10:14] and very, very disarming. [10:15] He was obviously fought for a very [10:18] conservative state and a lot of conservative issues, [10:20] but he was so effective at working across the aisle [10:25] that he could get a lot of things done. [10:29] And I look back, remember, [10:31] probably every single Republican nominee [10:33] to the Supreme Court and lower courts [10:36] that got through, got through because of Lindsey Graham. [10:40] Yeah, let me talk about [10:41] the transformation of Lindsey Graham a little bit. [10:43] You know, he was going to run for president. [10:45] He had a short-lived presidential campaign in 2015. [10:48] He dropped out that fall. [10:50] He was opposed to President Trump, [10:52] said some pretty inflammatory things [10:53] about why he didn't think that [10:54] President Trump was fit to be in office. [10:57] Kind of then started to side with President Trump [10:59] after the riot at the Capitol, [11:01] said some pretty negative things about the president then, [11:04] said count me out at some point, [11:05] but then got back in President Trump's good graces [11:08] and was a big advocate for him on Capitol Hill. [11:11] And I want to go back to the 2018 [11:13] and I want to go back to the Supreme Court. [11:15] That's right. [11:17] About Brett Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court. [11:17] You know, that nomination, [11:18] they thought was going to be very dead in the water [11:20] with Christine Blasey Ford after she brought forth [11:23] some of her allegations about Justice Kavanaugh. [11:26] And the Republicans on the Judiciary Committee [11:29] were going to handle this in a very kid-gloved way. [11:31] They brought in somebody else to kind of ask questions of her, [11:34] a female attorney to kind of do their bidding, [11:36] because I thought the optic of male senators [11:38] asking these very probing questions about something [11:41] that happened when they were back in high school [11:42] and it was just going to be a bad optic. [11:44] And at some point, this kind of spun off the rails. [11:46] And it was Lindsey Graham who absolutely just, [11:50] you know, shot up from his chair [11:51] and was really, you know, speaking at the top of his lungs. [11:55] And it really changed the tenor of the hearing. [11:58] And I think what had happened, [11:59] what happened there is it helped him kind of, [12:02] you know, get back in the graces of President Trump, [12:04] understand that he was somebody fighting for the cause, [12:06] fighting for the justice. [12:07] He thought that, you know, [12:08] then nominee Kavanaugh was being ill-treated. [12:11] And it was probably one of the most electrifying moments [12:14] in that hearing. [12:15] I want to go back to 2013 when they were trying to work out [12:18] with the gang of 14, the immigration reform bill. [12:23] This was something that he and John McCain and others had worked on. [12:25] They got, you know, almost two-thirds of a vote in the Senate. [12:28] It never went anywhere in the House. [12:30] But I was told that because Lindsey Graham [12:32] was such a good poker player, [12:34] he kind of had to, you know, fake that they had the votes. [12:37] Now, they had more than two-thirds on that vote. [12:39] It was a pretty overwhelming vote. [12:41] But the idea, again, that he was just at the center of everything [12:44] and the guy that he would come to. [12:45] You know, covering the Senate for as long as I have, [12:48] you know, there's people who become the majority leader, [12:50] the minority leader, the whip, etc. [12:52] Those are never positions that Lindsey Graham had. [12:55] But there historically have been people in the Senate [12:57] who always kind of made things work behind the scenes. [13:00] Sometimes they were very prominent. [13:02] You saw them on the air a lot. [13:04] You saw them in Senate debate a lot. [13:05] But I think of somebody like Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts. [13:09] I think of somebody like Richard Russell, [13:11] who the Russell Senate office building is named after. [13:14] They completely knew how the Senate operated [13:16] and knew where all the votes were on every single issue on both sides. [13:20] And that was Lindsey Graham. [13:21] And that's why this is just not the death of a senator. [13:24] This is why foreign leaders like Benjamin Netanyahu [13:26] who and others are sending in their tribute because he was such a force. [13:29] Sure. [13:30] Well, sure. [13:30] And to your point, we can remember back when it was Lindsey Graham [13:35] who was part of the three amigos, right? [13:37] It was Senator John McCain, Senator Joe Lieberman, [13:40] and Lindsey Graham. [13:42] And you saw this sort of group that could work across the aisles. [13:47] But I want to go back just for a second [13:48] because I think when we look back on, and you're right, Chad, [13:52] you're so right that he was at the center of every policy debate. [13:55] I think one of the defining moments in his political career [13:57] was the Kavanaugh hearing because as you rightfully point out, [14:02] the Kavanaugh nomination looked all but dead in the water. [14:05] And out of nowhere during Kavanaugh's Judiciary Committee hearing, [14:10] he all of a sudden just lit up the entire committee [14:15] and his entire Senate colleagues, both Democrats and Republicans, [14:19] calling what was being done to him the most despicable sham [14:24] he had ever seen in his political life [14:27] and pointed to everyone on that committee, [14:29] including the Republicans, and said, [14:31] if you vote against this man, this is a travesty. [14:34] And it totally changed the trajectory. [14:37] I would say it got Kavanaugh across the aisle, [14:40] but it also demonstrated not only could he put himself [14:43] at the center of policy debates, [14:45] but he could wield political capital in ways [14:49] that some senators and leaders just don't quite learn. [14:53] Speak to that if you can. [14:54] Yeah, he understood what capital that he had, [14:57] and he understood, you know, at certain points, [15:00] you know, when to use anger. [15:01] You know, that was an example during the Brett Kavanaugh hearing. [15:04] You know, I've seen him do that before in other debates, [15:07] but also, as I said, you know, be disarming with humor. [15:10] It, you know, that's what makes somebody like Senator Graham, [15:15] be the Democrat or Republican, very effective. [15:17] Somebody who can kind of do that and understand, you know, [15:20] where those different power sources are coming from. [15:23] And if you make a miscalculation on that, [15:25] and I didn't see Lindsey Graham make very many [15:27] political miscalculations, that's significant. [15:29] He thought at that moment, for obvious reasons, [15:32] that maybe they could salvage the nomination, [15:35] and the only way to salvage it was through what he did. [15:38] Because, again, that here, [15:40] this was the second confirmation hearing for Kavanaugh. [15:42] Remember, we had gone through this, [15:43] the allegations about from Christine Blasey Ford came much later. [15:47] And, again, you know, even in dealing with his relationship [15:49] with President Trump, there was a point where, you know, [15:52] he was very outspoken, you know, coming into 2016, [15:56] against President Trump, thought that he was not fit for office. [15:58] I remember a very frank conversation with myself [16:01] and some other reporters in the Senate Subway Station, [16:03] where he really tore into, you know, [16:05] Donald Trump, who I don't even think at that point in 2016, [16:08] was the nominee yet, and just did not think that this guy was fit. [16:12] But, again, you know, he always understood where that [16:15] political power was ebbing and flowing. [16:18] Obviously, President Trump was elected in 2016, [16:20] and he moved to that and figured out, [16:22] okay, if we're going to get things done, [16:24] okay, that's where we need to be. [16:25] You know, some people might, you know, [16:28] criticize that of being a chameleon, [16:30] but, honestly, in the years that I've been around Capitol Hill, [16:33] those who get things done on both sides of the aisle [16:35] are those who understand where those power centers ebb and flow, [16:38] and then figure out a way to move toward that, [16:41] and then, you know, sometimes you're trying to get something for your state. [16:44] Sometimes you're trying to get something for your party. [16:46] Sometimes you're trying to get something for your party. [16:48] Sometimes you're trying to get something for yourself. [16:50] or the support of the leader or somebody for your election. [16:52] Lindsey Graham was always somebody who was able to kind of morph [16:55] in that sense, and that worked to his benefit. [16:58] Yeah, it's very interesting, [16:59] this relationship between President Trump and Lindsey Graham. [17:02] You're right. He was a huge critic. [17:04] I remember being in a room with him once, [17:07] where he was not just making fun of President Trump, [17:10] but his voters, and he clearly did not like him in 2016, [17:14] but your Kavanaugh moment was a bonding moment on both sides. [17:18] I think President Trump saw that Lindsey Graham could get things done, [17:21] and then Lindsey Graham realized, I think, as you rightly point out, [17:25] that, you know, this was going to be the next president, [17:28] or this was going to be the president. [17:29] This is where the power is. [17:31] I need to go to him. [17:32] He was clearly much more hawkish and much more prone towards what some would say neoconism [17:41] than President Trump, who originally started as, you know, no more new wars. [17:45] And so I think that relationship, you know, [17:50] I think Lindsey brought President Trump over to his side on sometimes, [17:54] and I think President Trump brought him over. [17:56] I also will say that the game of golf can be very bonding. [18:00] I also will say that the game of golf can be very bonding. [18:01] I also will say that the game of golf can be very bonding. [18:02] Both of them love the game. [18:02] They played often at Bedminster and some of his other clubs, [18:05] the president's other clubs, so I think this was also a bonding moment. [18:09] But Chad, the last time I saw Lindsey Graham was at the state dinner with King Charles, [18:15] and he sat right across from me. [18:17] He looked fine to me. [18:19] You've seen him in person more recently. [18:22] I know it appears at least from the reports we've seen that it might have been a cardiac arrest. [18:28] His father died of a cardiac arrest. [18:31] Is there any, but the reports also say something about a brief illness. [18:35] Do you have any more information about that? [18:38] You know, we just don't know at this stage. [18:41] I remember, you know, when I went to interview him, [18:43] and again, this was some months ago. [18:44] It was in the late winter or early spring, [18:46] and this was a separate one-off interview. [18:48] Just not grabbing him in the hallway, as we often did, about the section 230 story. [18:53] But I remember he had a pretty bad cold then. [18:55] And I will say this, you know, I didn't know, [18:59] I hadn't heard anything about any health issues surrounding him or anything like that. [19:03] I will say that, because he was always globetrotting, [19:06] you know, be it the Middle East or Europe or someplace else, [19:09] I did notice in the past few months, [19:11] he did look a little more tired and a little more haggard. [19:14] You know, as I said, he had just turned 71 a couple of days ago. [19:18] I don't know if that's age or something else. [19:20] But it was just something, as somebody who covers the hill on a day-to-day basis, [19:23] you notice things about people, [19:25] especially people who have been there for an awfully long time. [19:27] And I noticed that he did look, I would say, in the past year or so, [19:31] it was just a visual recognition. [19:33] He didn't seem to be, to look as, maybe as physically strong as he was. [19:38] That's just my observation. [19:40] You know, I want to be very clear. [19:41] I don't know if there's anything that, you know, that was going on. [19:44] I do know he was sick and suffering from a pretty bad cold that lingered for a while [19:48] when I had him. [19:50] And I think that was one of the reasons we couldn't get the interview at some point [19:53] because he had been sick and his voice sounded bad and all that. [19:56] So I don't want to read too much into that. [19:58] But, you know, that's, you know, this is always the thing about, you know, [20:02] covering things in Washington. [20:04] I said this on the air in the middle of the night here when we broke into coverage this morning. [20:08] I said there's an old Native American phrase that death comes and it's always out of season. [20:13] Here, everybody in Washington is focused on Mitch McConnell [20:16] and is he going to be able to come back? [20:18] They've not been very forthcoming about that. [20:20] Just a couple of, you know, weeks ago, everybody was saying, [20:23] what about Tom Kane Jr., the Republican representative from New Jersey? [20:26] What is his situation? [20:28] We just don't know. [20:28] And then somebody you're not even focusing on, you know, [20:32] you know, just passes away suddenly. [20:34] You know, and it's just remarkable. [20:36] And I think that's part of the shock in this, [20:37] that, you know, this was not something that was expected [20:40] by anyone here on Capitol Hill. [20:42] Truly. [20:43] Chad Pergram, thank you so much for your long history and wisdom on all of this. [20:49] Thanks, Chad. [20:51] Be sure to like and subscribe for all the Fox News latest on YouTube [20:55] and catch full shows streaming now on Fox 1.