Sen. Mitch McConnell said in his first statement since being hospitalized a month ago that he fell and had been briefly unconscious.
Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022, Graham had made no fewer than 10 trips to Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy noted yesterday.
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More than a year after introducing a stalled, bipartisan bill to hamstring Russia’s economy, Graham announced Friday — in what would be his final public appearance — that the White House had agreed to let the legislation move forward.
The Trump had administration revised the bill, which was designed to hit countries that buy Russian oil and gas with 500 percent tariffs, to allow more flexibility on how the sanctions would be applied.
Democrats, including Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, a co-author of the bill, told NBC News last month they feared the revisions would render the legislation insignificant. But on Friday, Graham declared that the bill, which is co-sponsored by a majority of senators, would become law.
“I have never been more optimistic than I am today that we have the formula to end this war,” he told reporters in Kyiv.
Graham had told NBC News that he believed cutting off exports of Russian oil to the countries that rely on it most, including China and India, would hurt President Vladimir Putin’s ability to fund the war in Ukraine.
Following Graham’s sudden death, numerous Democrats are urging swift passage of the legislation in his honor. Trump made no mention of the bill during his interview on NBC News’ “Meet the Press” yesterday, instead insisting Graham was most excited about passage of an elections overhaul bill called the SAVE America Act.
Some Republican lawmakers said yesterday that the two bills should be tied together as a way to advance the elections bill, which would require proof of citizenship to register to vote and personal identification at the polls. That bill does not have enough support to advance, however, meaning linking the two measures would effectively kill the sanctions legislation.
In his interview with “Fox & Friends,” Trump credited Graham with helping to get Justice Brett Kavanaugh confirmed to the Supreme Court.
“When he got angry, like he did in the case of Brett Kavanaugh, it was so impactful,” Trump said. “I think it saved the, I think it saved the — Brett becoming a justice.”
During the 2018 controversy surrounding sexual assault allegations against the now-justice, Graham slammed Democrats and accused them of wanting to “destroy this guy’s life.” He called the Kavanaugh hearing “the most unethical sham since I’ve been in politics.” Kavanaugh had stridently denied the allegations.
“Lindsey went on his tirade, and it was much more than a tirade,” Trump said this morning. “I think it was one of the great 10 moments of Congress.”
Trump said this morning that the U.S. is going to control the Strait of Hormuz in an interview on “Fox & Friends.”
Asked for his response to Iran “trying to take over” the critical shipping route, Trump responded, “well, we’re taking over the strait.”
Iran has claimed it controls the strait as the U.S. and Iran continue to exchange attacks amid the power struggle over the waterway. The memorandum of understanding the two countries signed last month said Iran would arrange for safe passage and not charge vessels traveling through the strait for 60 days. But amid Iranian attacks on ships in the strait, Trump said last week that the ceasefire was over.
Later in the interview, Trump said that the U.S “should be reimbursed” for efforts to protect the waterway.
“We guarded it for nothing, and now we’re going to guard it, and we’re going to get paid for guarding it, a lot of money,” Trump said, without detailing how this would work.
“But we just want to be reimbursed for doing all of this, for putting our people in danger,” he added.
NBC News spoke to people in Graham’s hometown of Seneca, South Carolina, on the death of the state’s senior senator.
Clay Vassey, a realtor who said he had been in Washington two weeks ago at a legislative conference to push the recently passed housing bill forward, said that he met the senator on the plane to D.C. Vassey said Graham “introduced himself” and that he was “very energetic, very personable.”
“I was just there two weeks ago,” Vassey said. “I was just talking. I just shook his hand. I was just on the airplane with him, and now all that we have is a legacy.”
Sue Feather, who has lived in the state since 2018, said that she’d already seen online rumors of Graham dying from causes other than a heart attack.
“I said I didn’t have that on my bingo card.” Feather said. “I mean, really, with all the stuff going on, now people have ideas of what could happen to them, you know, other than just having a heart attack.”
Her husband, Jeff Feather, told NBC News that while Graham has a “great legacy,” he developed “a lot of controversies” and that there’s been “a lot of love-hate relationships over the years.”
Sue Feather said that when the shock of Graham’s passing fades, South Carolinians will be “sad, because [Graham] had a lot more to give.”
“When the dust settles, I really feel like, first of all, everyone will be shocked, but second, they will be sad, because he had a lot more to give,” Feather said. “He was a big proponent of President Trump. He was supportive. He was supportive of South Carolina, especially upstate. So I don’t know. I think it’ll be sad.”
The tear in the aorta that doctors preliminarily believe led to the death of Graham late Saturday is an immediately life-threatening emergency that may cause symptoms similar to those of a heart attack.
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Trump told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” yesterday that he spoke with Graham on Saturday night, hours before the senator died.
Trump said that “other than being tired, he was fine,” adding that he believed Graham’s death was a “quick end, and maybe that’s not the worst way to go.”
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Graham, who died unexpectedly Saturday at the age of 71, leaves behind a legacy defined by his hawkish foreign policy views, a key chairmanship that helped transform the Supreme Court and his evolution from a fiery critic of Trump to one of his staunchest allies.
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The U.S. launched another round of strikes on Iran yesterday, part of an effort it said was intended to thwart its attacks on traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway crucial to the world’s oil supply.
Tehran said it retaliated with strikes across the region, targeting U.S. facilities.
The latest round of strikes began at 5 p.m. ET, U.S. Central Command said in a statement. It said on X around 10:30 p.m. that the strikes had been completed. The goal was to curb Iran’s ability to target commercial shipping in the strait at a time when the U.S. has declared it open for business and Iran has said it’s closed.
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Trump will host top IndyCar drivers at a White House event this afternoon ahead of next month’s Grand Prix here, a White House official told NBC News.
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Mitch McConnell said yesterday in his first public statement since he was hospitalized nearly a month ago that he was “briefly unconscious” after he suffered a fall.
In the statement, accompanied by a photo of McConnell smiling in a hospital chair alongside his wife, Elaine Chao, he said doctors have not yet cleared him to return to the Senate floor to vote.
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Republicans are starting to scramble to find both a temporary and a permanent replacement for Graham, who in June won the GOP Senate primary in South Carolina and was expected to cruise to re-election to a fifth term in November.
Hours after Graham’s death, Trump said he had a preferred replacement in mind but declined to share a name out of respect for Graham.
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Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., is endorsing Rep. Haley Stevens in the hotly contested primary to replace him in the Senate.
“Over the last eighteen years, while serving the people of Michigan, I have been surrounded by many extremely talented and dedicated partners who work tirelessly for our state. Haley Stevens has been that partner in Congress,” Peters said in a statement announcing his endorsement.
Peters later added that Stevens “will be ready on day 1 to fight for Michigan.”
Stevens called Peters “a mentor, a friend, and a role model throughout my career” in a statement touting the senator’s endorsement.
“Senator Peters knows what it takes to win in Michigan, and he knows what Michigan needs from our next U.S. senator: grit, effectiveness, hard work, and Michigan common sense. I am honored to have his support in this campaign,” Stevens said.
The four-term congresswoman is facing off against former Wayne County Health Director Abdul El-Sayed, a staunch progressive, in the race to replace Peters, who opted not to run for re-election this year.
Michigan’s other Democratic senator, Elissa Slotkin, has not endorsed in the race, citing a “tradition” of elected Democrats in Michigan remaining neutral in primaries.
Peters’ endorsement also comes less than a week before El-Sayed is set to rally with two of his high-profile backers: Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. The primary is Aug. 4.
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