First Draft: Trump Makes Lindsey Graham’s Death All About... Himself
News of the South Carolina senator's demise shocked DC but the president seemed most concerned about what it meant for his voter suppression bill. In Michigan, a big endorsement for Abdul El-Sayed.
On this day in 2024, Donald Trump survived an assassination attempt at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. The upper part of Trump’s right ear was hit by a bullet or bullet fragment. One supporter was killed and two seriously injured. The shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, was killed. His motive remains unknown.
Good morning from Washington. Martin here, and as is becoming sort of traditional, Happy Monday. After another impossibly busy weekend of political and geopolitical news, it’s my pleasure to distill it all into a top read to start your week.
It was a weekend when Donald Trump’s illegal war with Iran flared back into sustained exchanges of fire over the Strait of Hormuz. Back home came sad news that dominated the Sunday headlines: Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina died on Saturday evening, aged 71, when his heart gave out.
This consideration of Graham’s antic career, from shortly before the 2020 election, is one of the best columns (or pure political broadsides) I’ve ever had the pleasure to edit, though what came after 2020 seems sure to color how Graham is remembered too. Today’s ‘First Draft,’ meanwhile, considers how Trump, the man Graham warned about, avidly served, seemed to abandon, then avidly served again, reacted to his death. Let’s read on.
‘I Was Nasty Too’
Donald Trump’s response to the death of Senator Lindsey Graham was nothing if not predictable. It was all about him.
“He ran against me,” Trump told CNN, of the Republican primary of 2016, adding: “He was one of the 17 people that ran against me and he was a smart guy. And it was a nasty campaign. He was tough and nasty but I was nasty too. And it was that fine. And I got to know him by little drips and drabs, and then we became friendly. And there was no better advocate.”
As shorthand for how Graham attacked Trump – calling him a “loser,” a “nutjob,” a “demagogue,” and a “race-baiting, xenophobic religious bigot” who would “destroy” the GOP – but then came swiftly to heel, it was accurate enough, though there were 17 candidates including Trump, Graham one of five who dropped out before votes were cast. Tellingly, Trump also praised Graham for his 2018 defense of Supreme Court pick Brett Kavanaugh, whom Trump said was treated worse than anyone and “that includes me, maybe not.” Takes one to know one, let’s say. Like Trump, Kavanaugh was accused of sexual assault. Like Trump, Kavanaugh vehemently denied it. Unlike Trump, Kavanaugh wasn’t found liable.
But Kavanaugh was just a sidetrack, a bit of free association. Trump didn’t want to talk about the justice any more than he wanted to talk about Graham. He really wanted to talk about his precious SAVE Act, the voter-suppression measure wrapped in lies about voter fraud the president thinks will save the Republicans in November, and which is set to dominate discussion again when Congress returns on Monday.