Lindsey Graham spent his final hours on Earth doing exactly what you would expect Lindsey Graham to spend his final hours on Earth doing: working. The man flew to Ukraine, met with Zelenskyy, flew back to the United States, called the President of the United States about legislation, went to bed, and never woke up. That is not a retirement plan. That is a man who simply did not have an off switch.
As USA Journal reported, Trump appeared on Meet the Press Sunday morning in a segment that was originally supposed to feature Graham himself as a guest. Instead, Trump recounted their final conversation, which took place early Saturday evening and centered on the SAVE America Act, an election integrity bill Graham was pushing right up to the end.
"He sounded a little tired," Trump told host Kristen Welker. "But perfect. He had a right to be. And he was a worker. He was really a worker."
Trump said the two discussed getting the bill passed and possibly seeing each other the next day. Then around 1 a.m., word came from Graham's office that the senator had died.
"I said, 'You gotta... I just can't believe it,'" Trump recalled. "He was like a member of the family to me. It's very tough, actually."
Most people come home from an international trip and collapse on the couch with whatever streaming service their kids set up for them. Graham came home from a war zone and immediately got on the phone with the president to talk about legislation. The man treated exhaustion like a suggestion.
In a separate interview with CNN's Jake Tapper, Trump pointed to Graham's defense of Brett Kavanaugh during the 2018 confirmation hearings as his finest Senate moment. Say what you want about Graham's long and occasionally zigzagging career, but that particular performance was the political equivalent of a man flipping over a table in a restaurant because the soup was cold and everyone in the building knowing he was right about the soup.
Graham had his disagreements with conservatives over the years. Spending, foreign policy, and his pre-alliance era with Trump were all real friction points that nobody needs to pretend did not happen. But the final phone call of his life was about securing American elections. Not fundraising. Not cable news hits. Legislation.
Tributes rolled in from Netanyahu, Zelenskyy, Senate Majority Leader Thune, former National Security Advisor McMaster, and NATO's Mark Rutte. Every single one highlighted the same thing: the man showed up. Everywhere. Constantly. Whether you wanted him there or not, and sometimes especially when you did not.
Lindsey Graham lived his public life at a pace that would hospitalize most people half his age, and he kept that pace right until the very end. Rest in peace, Senator. The to-do list you left behind is not getting any shorter.
Read more conservative news commentary at: USA Journal News
