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U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) Has Died. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired July 12, 2026 - 03:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[03:00:00]

WILL RIPLEY, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking news just coming into CNN, as we've been discussing, absolutely stunning, shocking news out of Washington that longtime Republican Senator Lindsey Graham has passed away. His office says he died on Saturday night after a brief and sudden illness. The statement says Graham's family is asking for privacy at this time.

He represented the state of South Carolina in the U.S. Congress since 1995. And now we can bring back in Elex Michaelson, who's the anchor of The Story Is, who's been taking us through this for the last 30 minutes or so since the news has come in. The news is so fresh, Elex, we haven't heard any reaction from too many folks in Washington. Many of them may be asleep, although I'm certainly phones have been ringing off the hook. We're waiting to hear from President Trump, obviously a very close ally of Senator Lindsey Graham.

And I know you mentioned about how this news is being received around the world, and how Lindsey Graham is seen around the world. Obviously, the country where the most reaction is coming in right now would be Israel, because Lindsey Graham has been known for years as a very close friend and supporter of Israel.

This is a post from President Isaac Herzog on X saying, quote, I am shocked and heartbroken to learn of the sudden passing of the great American patriot, a great friend of Israel, and my dear friend, Senator Lindsey Graham. Herzog called Graham a beacon of moral clarity and a true leader of the U.S.-Israel partnership. He said, we will never forget how he stood by the people of Israel in our most difficult moments, and we will remain eternally grateful for his sense of justice, truth, and loyalty, he wrote. He also said the people of Israel mourn his loss, and he says, I will miss my great friend very dearly.

Obviously, to lose somebody with such influence in the United States Senate and such a good relationship, to be able to whisper in the ear of President Trump, especially at this time, with everything happening with the conflict of Iran it, must be absolutely devastating for his friends in Israel, Elex.

ELEX MICHAELSON, CNN ANCHOR: No doubt. I mean, Lindsey Graham was seen as one of the closest allies of Israel in the entire United States government. You see the warm relations just in the video we were just showing you of his interactions with Benjamin Netanyahu and Isaac Herzog and others over the years as well. And it -- since it is the top of the hour, I think we should take a moment to reflect for people who may just be joining us in the United States and around the world to reflect on Lindsey Graham's life. This is somebody who grew up in South Carolina. While he was at college, his parents both died very quickly. He ended up taking essentially custody of his young sister, helped to raise her and then moved into military service where he worked as a lawyer for the military, has been a lifelong champion of the military, became an elected official himself, was in Congress as a member of the House of Representatives for many years then became a member of the United States Senate in 2003 and has been there ever since.

The early days in his time in the Senate, he was known for his close relationship with John McCain, the senator from Arizona, and Joe Lieberman, who was a senator from Connecticut. They called themselves the Three Amigos. They were known for being mavericks and sort of standing up to the Republican Party, also known for being very big champions of military intervention. John McCain used to joke about bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran, something that they all had talked about, this idea of potential military intervention in Iran, something that never happened, and they never found a president who was willing to do that.

Lindsey Graham himself ran for president in 2016 in that wide open primary when nobody expected that Donald Trump would become the eventual nominee. Lindsey Graham spent much of that campaign slamming Donald Trump, warning the country about what would happen if Donald Trump became president. But then after he did become president, Lindsey Graham became one of Donald Trump's greatest champions in the United States Senate, has called him the greatest president of all time, just this week described him as the GOAT of all presidents.

[03:05:03]

And he worked closely with him, especially on foreign policy. Graham was endorsed by Trump just this year as he ran for Senate. He won the Republican nomination in South Carolina just this year, is in the middle of yet another campaign and has been advocating along with Israel for military intervention in Iran.

And we've seen right now, in real time, even today, United States strikes just a few hours ago in Iran. And it's that -- Lindsey Graham certainly brought President Trump closer to that reality. Would he have gotten there on his own? I don't know. But Lindsey Graham is somebody who has been an extraordinarily influential member of the United States Senate, and I think it's hard to underestimate how shocking and sort of out of nowhere this story came tonight. As the entire political world has been focused on Mitch McConnell's health and sort of how is he doing, nobody would have expected that Lindsey Graham would pass away.

And so we're still trying to get details in terms of what that sudden illness is. How did that happen so quickly? Hopefully, we get some of those details in the hours ahead. As you mentioned, Will, and I'm sure there's a lot of people that are being woken up right now. There are plenty more that are asleep that are going to wake up and look at their phones or turn on the T.V. and just be completely shocked.

I mean, for me, I don't know about you, Will, I thought that this maybe was a hoax, you know, that maybe his account got hacked. And until we got confirmation from his communication teams and from others to say, no, this is in fact real, it was something that just was nowhere near anybody's bingo card tonight.

RIPLEY: Yes. Elex, you know, we were just -- it was a pretty very slow news day, and when I heard this in my ear, at first I thought they meant to say Mitch McConnell. It took me a moment and I said, are you sure you're talking about Lindsey Graham and not Mitch McConnell? Because we've seen the footage of, you know, the ambulances outside of Mitch McConnell's house. There's been so much discussion about Mitch McConnell's health. There have been questions posed to Mitch McConnell's office for updates on his health. They hadn't gotten a response. So, people have been suspecting that there might be some news from Washington about Mitch McConnell.

But Lindsey Graham, he's been giving public statements. He's appeared healthy in public. He just met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. He's been active. He's been traveling. He just got back to Washington within the last day or so. And so, obviously, we wait to learn more information about what his office is describing as this brief and sudden illness.

When you say brief, you're talking about some -- a very brief, you know, (INAUDIBLE) working and active?

MICHAELSON: Yes, like we can't -- yes, we can't speculate on what the -- I mean, that sounds like a heart attack, right? I mean, that's the kind of thing that would be, or an aneurysm or something that -- I mean, I bet it was real brief. I mean, because yesterday hi, his office put out a ton of different statements on a bunch of different issues, you know, with his name. So, he was hiding that. I don't know, but, I mean, it seems like something like that is the most likely outcome at this point based off of everything we know.

But, you know, we'll learn more in the hours ahead in terms of what exactly happened to him and sort of where South Carolina goes from here and where the United States Senate goes from here. I mean, he's also a bit of a reminder of another era in the United States Senate. Just 71, which, by the way, in the Senate is like middle-age based off of the way that some people are --

RIPLEY: And he just turned 71.

MICHAELSON: I mean, Chuck Grassley is in his 90s.

RIPLEY: And he just turned 71.

MICHAELSON: Yes. So, that isn't that old for the United States Senate. But Lindsey Graham's been around for a long time. He got into that body, you know, pretty young. And so he has real connections to a lot of these senators from a different era that are no longer there, some of whom have died. Even Joe Biden is somebody who Lindsey Graham used to be good friends with when they both were in the United States Senate, and that relationship has been interesting and complicated over the years.

But that era of the Senate, which doesn't really exist anymore, which was much more focused on bipartisanship and working together and communication between the two sides, that is the era of the Senate that Lindsey Graham first came into.

[03:10:15]

And that era is slowly slipping away as a lot of the people who came from that.

I mean, I remember covering the Senate in college. I mean, I was assigned to cover the Senate for a summer and spent time talking to Lindsey Graham then and that the Senate then was Lindsey Graham and people like Ted Kennedy, and Barack Obama was there, and Hillary Clinton. And, you know, Hillary Clinton and Lindsey Graham used to be good friends, too. And that relationship soured over the years.

But he was somebody who was known, especially during that era for oftentimes going against his party, being willing to partner with the other side especially on foreign policy issues. You know, I think where he was especially happy, Lindsey Graham, was on what's called CODELs, which are -- which is short for Congressional delegations, that travel overseas where some of the partisanship kind of goes away.

These members oftentimes go into war zones together. I mean, certainly, Lindsey Graham made lots of trips to Iraq and Afghanistan over the years, as he was one of the biggest champions of that war as well. Both of those wars, I should say. And that is an opportunity where members get to spend a lot of time together, sometimes in tense situations, and develop close relationships with one another.

And I think Lindsey Graham had, at different points, very close relationships with folks who were kind of iconic senators from multiple different generations as he really spans -- I mean, think about it, Will, lots of different presidents and lots of different eras in American history, from you think of him involved when he was in Congress talking about Bill Clinton and impeachment and working with George W. Bush on, you know, the Iraq War and the Afghanistan War and 9/11 and, you know, supporting John McCain against Barack Obama and then talking with Barack Obama and then running against Trump and then working with Trump and then being friends with Biden and then fighting with Biden. I mean, Lindsey Graham has had real relationships with all of the last, you know, American presidents for the last 30 years.

RIPLEY: You know, he really had to learn from a very young age how to adapt to quick-changing circumstances. His parents died when he was an undergraduate, just 15 months apart from each other.

MICHAELSON: Yes.

RIPLEY: And then he had to help raise his 13-year-old sister. And so I would imagine when something like that happens and you're so young, you have to learn very quickly how to maneuver, and very few people in Washington did it better than Senator Lindsey Graham. Elex, thank you for sharing your expertise, your depth of knowledge. I imagine you're going to be rushing into the studios shortly, so I'll leave it with here for now. But I know we'll be back with you from your fantastic -- it looks like a home studio with a very impressive bookshelf behind you. And we just appreciate all of the knowledge and carrying our coverage here for the last 45 minutes. Elex Michaelson will be back on the air shortly.

But I'm going to pivot now to Washington.

MICHAELSON: Thanks, Will.

RIPLEY: Joining us is Eric Garcia, the Washington bureau chief with The Independent. Eric you are obviously in the middle of the night there. How did you learn the news, and what are you hearing?

ERIC GARCIA, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, THE INDEPENDENT: I literally got a text notification from my roommate/fellow reporter, Pablo Manriquez. He said that Lindsey Graham just died, and I responded by saying a word that I can't say on television.

And what immediately I'm just trying to put together and process is that Senator Graham is, you know, obviously 1 of 53. This comes at a time when the Senate is in kind of a state of flux. They've been at -- they were on recess these last two weeks, but now -- or last week-and- a-half, and but it also comes when Senator McConnell has been having health issues, so Republicans really might be down to 51 seats.

And also I think what I would say is that Republicans have lost somebody who could kind of talk some sense into President Trump. He was literally in Ukraine, as Elex said earlier, to discuss legislation on Russian sanctions. President Trump, of course, is not that big of a supporter of Ukraine.

[03:15:02]

And this was something that he was trying to get across the finish line. Senator Graham was also somebody who kind of served as an intermediary between senator, Senate Majority Leader John Thune and senator -- and the White House. So, it really is kind of this breakdown.

And on top of that, I think the other thing that's interesting is that Senator Graham was President Trump's biggest supporter when it came to the Iran war. Graham was a military hawk, and he made no apologies for it at a time when the Republican Party was really trying to figure out what it believed in foreign policy.

RIPLEY: And so what do you know about Senator Graham's schedule that he keeps as of late? I mean, he just turned 71, young, appeared to be healthy when he was speaking from Ukraine. Can you just take us through what you know about what he's been up to lately and how the hours have been, the travel, and what he's been planning, what he has had coming up, what was supposed to be happening on his schedule?

GARCIA: What it was -- to Elex's point, and I'm literally just a little bleary-eyed, I literally put on a shirt right now just to be on here, is that he was obviously in Ukraine earlier this week, you know, trying to push for a Russian sanctions legislation. But, really, the Senate was going to come back only for a few weeks before the August recess.

And he's Senate Budget Committee chairman. The Senate was planning on passing another budget reconciliation bill, which is a way that they could get around a filibuster to -- for federal spending. They were going to do a lot of legislative priorities. As Budget Committee chairman, he was going to be the leading -- the point person on that as well.

So, he really was quite busy, and, of course, he was President Trump's biggest booster, as I said, on the Iran war. So, he was very likely going to be in the president's ear and really kind of selling the war at a time when Republican senators are kind of losing their patience with President Trump.

RIPLEY: So, what happens now? I was reading here the governor of South Carolina will need to appoint a replacement to fill the vacancy temporarily, and then, and, again, this is very preliminary, just kind of googling here, but the governor should order an election within five days. If the vacancy occurs less than 100 days before a general election, then the temporary appointment lasts until after the following general election.

But Senator Graham just won the South Carolina Republican primary last month. So, this opens up now a lot of questions about what this is going to mean in an already very tricky situation in the Senate for both Democrats and Republicans, at a sensitive time, given everything with Iran.

GARCIA: Yes, absolutely. Well, Governor -- I don't envy Governor McMaster's predicament. There are going to be a lot of candidates who are going to be angling for this. As you said South Carolina just had a bruising primary for governor. The election is Graham was running for a fifth term in the Senate. So, now there's a question of will it be a caretaker position for during a special election, or will this be -- or will they just have a -- or will this be a full term or will this be a special? There are a lot of unanswered questions at this point because it happened so close to the actual election.

Graham was campaigning quite heavily. Polling was showing that he was still in a good position to win, but he was underperforming. So, the question now becomes, who decides to jump into that fire?

RIPLEY: What about Senator Lindsey Graham as a person? What struck him -- what struck you the most about him when you interviewed him, when you met him? What was he like?

GARCIA: You know, it's so funny. I'll tell a story is that one time my mom was visiting me on Capitol Hill and, you know, my mom is a confirmed Democrat, but, you know, she sees Lindsey Graham walking through, and then all of a sudden she's like, it's Lindsey Graham. And then he's like, I can't talk right now, but I'll get back to you. So, I appreciate how nice he was to my mom, didn't see him later on. But one of the things that I always appreciated, that a lot of reporters appreciated about Lindsey Graham is that he would usually talk to us, he would scrum with us, he would gaggle with us, and he was always very, very blunt about what he believed and what he thought about any given situation. Sometimes you wondered if he was going to go a little bit, you know, off the reservation, and sometimes he did.

[03:20:03]

But he was somebody who at least felt like he had to explain himself, which is more than I can say for other senators.

The other thing that was interesting to me was that despite his hard right turn in the final years, he would regularly still -- you would still regularly see him on the floor of the United States Senate talking with Democrats. One time I was talking with Senator Elizabeth Warren, by no means a moderate, and she was wearing a boot because I guess she had hurt her ankle. And Lindsey Graham passes by her and says, I'm a lawyer.

And so he became much more conservative, and in some ways he was still very conservative throughout his tenure, but he also still valued, I guess you could say, conviviality and congeniality, and, occasionally, it meant getting stuff done. Occasionally, it meant, you know, hitting a roadblock. You know, over time, he became somebody who was less interested in brokering deals than he was in the past. There was a report in The Washington Post that Senator Kyrsten Sinema started calling him a chaos monster. But he still got along with, you know, people of almost every stripe in the United States Senate, which is an increasing rarity these days.

RIPLEY: I was reading that he told reporters in March of 2015 that he had never sent an email. That's pretty striking statement. Did his staffers tell you what he was like as a boss? How did he communicate?

GARCIA: He -- you know, the people I know who know him, I only know a few people who worked for him, but they had an intense loyalty to him, which is, for those who don't know, the Senate is a very fluid place. There's a lot of young people who are just out of college who come in and out, and a lot of long hours, and a lot of bosses yelling, abusive bosses.

But that was really one of the things that surprised me, was just how Senator Graham kept people on his staff for as long as long as he did. That's a very rare trait. And, you know, in a business that values, you know, personal sniping or personal ambition, to be a boss who people stuck with, I think, is a good trait.

RIPLEY: Eric Garcia, I know it's the middle of the night there, and I know you just woke up and got this news and are still processing it. But I just want to thank you for being willing to jump on camera and share with us your thoughts.

I wanted to ask, is there anything else that you think that we should be watching for, that you're going to be looking for there in Washington, as we now -- as the coverage begins in what's undoubtedly going to be a story that shocks millions of people across America as they start to wake up to this news, and certainly D.C., where you are, is ground zero of all of that?

GARCIA: Yes. What I would say that's going to -- that I'm going to be really watching is that I think that whoever replaces Senator Graham is going to be much more of an adherent to the MAGA ideology. Senator Graham was still -- whereas Trump is more of, I guess you'd say, an America first Republican and an isolationist, Senator Graham was a military hawk. I would expect that the person succeeding him is going to be much more in that America first vein. Senator Graham went back and forth between supporting immigration reform and being a hawk. I expect the next senator from South Carolina to be much more of a restrictionist and a hawk on the border.

So, I expect that -- and I think this goes to the point that as politics becomes more nationalized, you really are not going to have as many characters who are so distinct as Lindsey Graham. You know, he had that very distinct southern accent from South Carolina. He wore blue blazers with buttons, with khaki pants. He was very, very indicative of a certain type of South Carolinian. And I think that kind of is lost as politics becomes more nationalized, and it's just like, whose side are you on? And are you on team R or team D?

RIPLEY: Eric Garcia is Washington Bureau Chief of The Independent, thank you very much for joining us.

And if you're just tuning into CNN, we're following breaking news, shocking breaking news out of Washington, that Senator Lindsey Graham, the Republican from South Carolina, a senator since 2003, has died after a brief and sudden illness. Nobody was expecting this news.

Information still coming in, reaction coming in from around the world, places like Israel, where Senator Graham was a very close friend of many leaders there.

Our coverage continues after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[03:25:00]

RIPLEY: Let's get you up to speed with our breaking news that we're following here on CNN, the shocking and unexpected death of U.S. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who passed away after a brief and very sudden illness. That is according to his office, which released a statement saying that he died on Saturday night. His family is asking for privacy at this time.

Graham represented the state of South Carolina in the U.S. Congress since 1995. He passed away just days after marking his 71st birthday, and he had just returned from a trip to Ukraine, where he met with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

For more, as we process and unpack this story that nobody was expecting, we're joined by CNN Presidential Historian Tim Naftali. He's a former director of the Nixon Presidential Library. Tim, what have you been hearing? What are your thoughts as we now enter this period of mourning a senator that nobody was expecting? Even though we've been talking about Mitch McConnell's declining health, nobody was expecting that Senator Lindsey Graham would be anything but continuing to be a vibrant pro-Trump, pro-Israel voice in Washington. And now he is gone, and there are a lot of questions about what happens next.

TIM NAFTALI, CNN PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: Well, we are witnessing -- this is indeed a shocking development. We are witnessing a passing of a generation of leaders in the Senate.

[03:30:02]

Senator Graham represented the state of South Carolina through some of the most momentous periods in our recent history. He was one of the House impeachment managers for the impeachment of Bill Clinton. He was a close ally of the Senate's -- of the -- sorry, the Republican National nominee for president, Senator McCain of Arizona, in 2008. He then became a close associate of Donald Trump, President Trump's. He has been around the center of presidential-congressional relations for over 30 years.

His standing in the country has shifted over time because some of his positions have shifted. As his close allies changed in the Senate and in the White House, at times, the senator's positions changed. At one time, Senator Graham was a great advocate of immigration reform at the end of the George W. Bush administration. At one time, Senator Graham was an ally of legislation to combat climate change.

One cardinal principle in Senator Graham's long public career is his commitment to the rule of law. He served in the military as a JAG, as a lawyer. He actually served in the Marines, rising to the level of colonel. So, his commitment to the law was strong. But some of his other policies changed over time, which made the senator, for some, an enigma.

What was always clear, however, was that Senator Graham wished to be at the center of decision-making and to contribute to his country. As his own views of what his country needed changed, his commitment to the country never changed.

For the Senate, his passing reflects a shift, a change, a generational change. Although he's younger than those who have been pointed to as emblematic or personifying, a gerontocracy, if you will, in our Congress in both parties, he nevertheless was closely associated with some of the lions of the Republican Party in the Senate, most especially Senator McCain, but also Senator McConnell. And so his passing is a reminder that we are seeing a generational shift both in the Republican and Democratic parties in Congress.

One thing to be kept in mind about Senator Graham is that he always believed it important to keep the country strong. And he was -- one area of policy where he did not waver was in his strong support for Ukraine and for his understanding that the Russian government of Vladimir Putin represents a threat to international security and to an American security. Senator Graham was also a strong proponent of NATO despite his close association with President Trump, who, as we know, is a critic of NATO.

RIPLEY: Tim, stand by for a moment. We just have seen a post from President Trump on Truth Social. Let me just read it for our viewers from President Trump just moments ago. Senator Lindsey Graham, one of the greatest people and senators I have ever known, is dead.

[03:35:01]

He was always working and was a true American patriot. Lindsey will be greatly missed. Details and arrangements to follow. So sad. President Donald J. Trump.

Back to you, Tim, as you talk about this close relationship that he has with President Trump, but also close relationships that he was able to have over the years with so many other politicians from across the political spectrum, used to be incredibly close with former President Joe Biden.

Have we seen a political chameleon like Senator Lindsey Graham, who has so deftly navigated the changing political tides and found himself in a position where he's close to the person who's in power and can have some influence and can offer guidance to that person?

NAFTALI: Well, I wouldn't use the term chameleon certainly at this moment. But one of the enigmas of Senator Graham's career was the fact that he was able during the Clinton impeachment process to -- as a Republican, to find President Clinton not guilty on one of the articles, which showed a willingness to be constitutional in thinking, not necessarily bipartisan but to avoid partisanship.

And he participated in a number of bipartisan efforts over the years, whether it was on climate change, immigration, but in 2020, he took an extraordinarily -- a super partisan position in the stop the steal crisis that was provoked by President Trump's unwillingness to accept the outcome of the election.

And this was a striking contrast in President -- in Senator Graham's career. Senator Graham had stood proudly by Senator McCain when Senator McCain had attacked the most vicious attacks against then- Senator Obama during the 2008 campaign. And the enigma of Lindsey Graham is that this ability to step outside of partisanship and consider grander, larger constitutional issues and national questions that could best be resolved through compromise.

This capacity, this ability seemed less in evidence as his friendship with President Trump grew. And as I say, I'm not that I'm a student of Senator Graham's at all, but I think it's an enigma that perhaps it'll take a biography or two to resolve.

RIPLEY: Is there one consistent strand in Senator Graham's political ideology that you as a historian have observed that sets him apart from so many other of his colleagues in Washington?

NAFTALI: Well, I think you have to put Senator Graham in context. Senator Graham is of the generation that began to dominate electoral politics in the South.

South Carolina was a Democratic stronghold for a number of reasons. We don't have to get into it tonight. But that shift from strong -- Democratic stronghold to all red state occurs during the career of Senator Graham.

Senator Graham, let's not forget, replaced Strom Thurmond, the longstanding senator from South Carolina, who had started his career as a Democrat. In fact, he had competed against Harry Truman for the nomination of the Democratic Party in 1948. Senator Graham was his successor as a Republican. Well, actually, Strom Thurmond had also shifted to the Republican Party. But Strom -- Senator Graham was Strom Thurmond's replacement.

[03:40:04]

So, he is among that first generation of Southern elected officials elected as Republicans. Not that -- there were some that shifted from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party, but he was elected as a Republican, and was part of that generation that developed an almost solid Republican South. We've seen changes in Georgia and Virginia since, but Graham comes in this period and his philosophy that is that of a conservative.

In the George W. Bush period, given his views on American power and the use of that power overseas, he was considered a neoconservative. I think that if one could -- one had asked him a week ago, he would continue to describe himself as a conservative.

I don't know how his conservatism in his own mind was reconciled to the kinds of principles and practices that conservatives now defend as part of the MAGA movement, but I think he would considered himself a Southern conservative of a tradition that was originally in the Democratic Party, but by the time he was of age as a politician, was firmly at the center of the Republican Party in the South.

RIPLEY: You mentioned his steadfast support for Ukraine, and he had just traveled to Ukraine, had just met with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy. He just celebrated his 71st birthday a matter of days ago. You talked about his support for NATO. But also I'd like to get into his very close relationship with Israel, and that's been one of the first nations with a flood of reaction, real heartbreak from Israeli politicians who are calling him one of the greatest friends of Israel, who stood with Israel in its darkest hours. This is an X post I'm just going to read from the former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett saying, quote, I'm heartbroken to hear of the passing of my friend, Senator Lindsey Graham.

What made his relationship with Israel so, so special and unique and so, so valued by his friends in Israel, particularly at this time where they're trying to get continued support for the conflict with Iran?

NAFTALI: Well, I think, first of all, it's -- you know, the leadership positions that he held over time in the Republican caucus in the Senate, coupled with the fact that he held to foreign policy views associated with the neoconservative movement. Israel was viewed as a staunch ally in the Middle East, as the only democracy in the Middle East.

Israel, though not a part of NATO, was considered as close to the United States by neocons, neoconservatives as NATO allies in the defense of liberty around the world. And Lindsey Graham's views in that instance, in those -- in that case, his views didn't change.

So, he comes from a tradition that goes back to Ronald Reagan, although he didn't -- wasn't serving in Congress in the Reagan years. But it is a tradition that we con-- goes back to Ronald Reagan in the Republican Party, especially. And it's involved a fervent support for Israel as a perceived bastion of democracy in the Middle East. And as Israel chose an extraordinarily controversial form of counterinsurgency after October 7th, Lindsey Graham stayed close to Israel and continued to defend Israel.

In a sense, although President Biden, former President Biden, became, you know, incrementally more critical of the Netanyahu government's approach after October 7th, President Biden's initial reaction to the attack on Israel by Hamas was in, in many ways, symbolic of that firm senatorial, largely bipartisan support for Israel that Senator Graham personified, as well as former senator and former President Biden at a different period in U.S.-Israeli relations.

[03:45:14]

In Senator Graham's case, that continued until the day he died.

RIPLEY: Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett also said America has lost a devoted patriot and Israel, has lost one of its greatest friends. Lindsey stood with Israel through our darkest hours with courage. My thoughts and prayers are with his family.

Tim, thank you so much for giving us your expertise, your historical depth of knowledge, and we're going to be leaning on you heavily in the coming hours and days as we cover this extraordinary, shocking breaking news out of Washington, the unexpected death of Senator Lindsey Graham, who had just turned 71 days ago, just returned from a trip overseas to Ukraine.

We're back after this with more of our breaking news.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

RIPLEY: We're following breaking news here on CNN. People in Washington now waking up to the news, still the middle of the night there, that U.S. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham has passed away after a brief and sudden illness. His office put out a very short statement saying that he died on Saturday night.

[03:50:03]

They also said in that statement that his family is asking for privacy at this time. Graham had just traveled to Ukraine, had just met with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy. He appeared to be in good health when he was giving public statements on that foreign trip, one of many that he has taken over his course of his career, been in Congress since 1995, representing the state of South Carolina, first in the House, and then he was elected to the Senate in 2003. He passed away just days after marking his 71st birthday.

So, as we continue to digest this news, obviously we got a short statement within the last 30 minutes or so from President Trump, CNN Political Commentator Maria Cardona now joining us from Washington. Thank you for getting up in the middle of the night.

How did you learn the news, and how are you processing this, Maria?

MARIA CARDONA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: This is such a shock. I just happened to look at my phone. I woke up literally, and I just glanced at my phone, and I saw all of this breaking news, and I couldn't believe it. It is literally just a shock that is going through right now Washington, D.C., the United States, and the world, frankly.

You know, Lindsey Graham was someone who stood tall in the U.S. Senate. Everyone knew him. He had a big personality. He was known as a hawk on foreign policy. He had been known as someone who was open- minded on immigration, though the closer that he became to Donald Trump, the more that changed.

And we saw some of those positions change throughout his political career as Donald Trump took much of a firmer, tighter hold on the GOP. And, you know, a lot of folks who had counted on him to be someone who was open-minded and conciliatory on issues like immigration were disappointed in that fact.

However, on the issues of foreign policy, on the issues of Ukraine he always seemed to be in the right place on that, right place, meaning, you know, if you were somebody who was on the side of Ukraine and wanted to make sure that Ukraine had what they needed in their fight against Russia, Lindsey Graham was always there.

And so, you know, may he rest in peace. I am sure his family is mourning right now. So, thoughts and prayers go out to them and to the people in South Carolina. You know, the politics of this, there will be time for that. But right now, I think we're just all in shock.

RIPLEY: He was a close ally of President Trump for many years. Although back in 2016, when he ran for president, as you know well, he was a very sharp critic. How has that relationship evolved, and how has Senator Graham used that close relationship with President Trump to try to influence him in these various areas that are really important to him, particularly, as you mentioned, Ukraine and also Israel?

CARDONA: Yes. I think that's right, and that, I think, demonstrates the evolution of many of the leaders in the Republican Party who understood just what a firm hold Donald Trump was gaining within the Republican Party. He had many critics, as you just mentioned. Lindsey Graham was one of them in 2016, many others as well, who today can be counted as firm supporters of President Trump, and Lindsey Graham became one of them.

And I think he did use that closeness, he did use that influence to try to push the president, President Trump, into a more of a position on Lindsey's side, more of a position that he saw was the right one in terms of the issue of Ukraine, the issue of Israel, as you mentioned, as well.

So, on the issues that were really important to Senator Graham, he did try to use his influence to try to bring Donald Trump over much more to the side of Ukraine. As we know, President Trump, way too many times, sided and still sides with Putin on the issue of Russia against Ukraine, and was someone who really waffled in terms of supporting Ukraine and giving them the ammunition that they need in order to win this -- the war against Russia.

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And so Senator Graham really tried to use his influence to keep Donald Trump, to keep the Republican Party on the side of Ukraine, on the right side of making sure that they got what they needed in terms of the support of the war against Russia.

So, I think you could say that on those key issues that were really, really important to the senator, he really tried to use that relationship to make sure that Donald Trump was on the right side of that.

RIPLEY: And, Maria, just quickly, how shocking is this given that all eyes have been on Senator McConnell's health, and yet now you've learned this news, like everybody else just a matter of shortly less than an hour ago about Senator Graham?

CARDONA: It is a shockwave that again is going through D.C. and the United States and the world. In fact, when I looked at my phone and I saw senator died, my first thought was that it was Senator McConnell, and then I saw that it was Lindsey Graham, and I had to read that like five times just to make sure that I was reading it correctly.

It -- no one was expecting this. We don't know really right now what happened other than what his family has put out in terms of a brief illness. I think everyone is in shock. I don't think everyone -- I don't think anyone really knew or had any inkling that he was ill, unless, of course, it was just the folks around him, his close family and friends.

RIPLEY: Yes.

CARDONA: So, again --

RIPLEY: Absolutely. Absolutely shocking.

CARDONA: -- you know, may he rest in peace, and supporting them now.

RIPLEY: Absolutely, may he rest in peace, and shocking given that he had just come back from that overseas trip.

Maria, we're at the top of the hour, so we need to reset here.

You're watching breaking news on CNN. We'll be back.

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