US Senator Lindsey Graham, a key ally of President Donald Trump and a hawkish pro-war voice, dies of a “brief, sudden illness,” according to his office.
Graham, 71, passed away on Saturday evening, the communications director for his office said in a post on X early Sunday.
Graham was elected to the US Senate in 2002 and was re-elected in 2008, 2014 and 2020. In 1994, he served in the US House of Representatives, the lower house of the US Congress, for South Carolina’s third congressional district.
In 2016, he ran for the Republican nomination but dropped out before the primaries began, having been an outspoken critic of Trump. He later became one of his staunchest allies in Congress.
He recently served as chairman of the Senate Budget Committee. Graham also served as a member of the Senate Committee on Appropriations, the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works.
Before entering politics, Graham served for more than six years as an Air Force lawyer and then, in 1995, joined the Air Force Reserve, where he stayed for 20 years. He retired at the rank of colonel.
Graham was a strong supporter of the 2003 US invasion of Iraq and had long pushed for war on Iran. He strongly supported the Israeli regime and was a hawkish backer of the recent US-Israeli war of aggression on Iran.
Graham praised the naval blockade imposed on Iran as a “very smart decision,” while openly advocating further measures aimed at inflicting economic damage on the country.
Speaking to NBC’s Meet the Press in mid-May, the South Carolina Republican claimed that negotiations with Iran had “hit a wall” and urged Washington to target the country’s energy infrastructure.
“There’s still more targets to be had. And there’s things we can do to hurt,” Graham said, describing Iran’s energy sector as the country’s “soft underbelly” and placing it “at the top of the list” of potential targets should the war on Iran resume.
Israel’s ministry of military affairs said on Sunday morning it was saddened by the death of Graham, “who stood with Israel in its most difficult time.”
Israeli President Isaac Herzog said the news of Graham’s death left him “shocked and heartbroken.”
Graham had recently returned from Ukraine, where he met with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to discuss support for Kiev and sanctions on Russia.
