South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster said in a statement that Graham was \u201cthe fiercest of fighters for South Carolina and America \u2013 and a loyal and steadfast friend\u201d.<\/p>\n
Under South Carolina law, McMaster can make an immediate appointment to fill Graham\u2019s seat for the remainder of his term, which expires in January.<\/p>\n
Graham, whose birthday was Thursday, recently returned from Ukraine after meeting with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Graham told reporters in Kyiv on Friday that a bipartisan group of senators had reached an agreement with the White House to impose new sanctions on Russia in an effort to end that country\u2019s long-running war with Ukraine.<\/p>\n
Emergency medical responders worked to stabilise a man at Graham\u2019s home on Saturday night and transport him to a hospital, according to police scanner audio obtained by The Washington Post and witnesses.<\/p>\n
Emergency medical services received a call around 8.30pm local time for a person suffering chest pains at a Capitol Hill home owned by Graham, according to the audio. About 25 minutes later, emergency personnel said that CPR was in progress and that a man at the house was suffering from cardiac arrest.<\/p>\n
A person who lives on Graham\u2019s street shared photos of an older man being taken from Graham\u2019s home by wheeled stretcher and loaded into an ambulance around 9.30pm. The man was then taken to George Washington University Hospital.<\/p>\n
Graham\u2019s death narrows Republicans\u2019 majority in the Senate, where they had held a 53-47 edge but were already facing the expected absence of one member. The office of Senator Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) has said the 84-year-old lawmaker has been hospitalised since last month but has shared few other updates on his condition.<\/p>\n
Among possible successors in South Carolina, businessman Mark Lynch was runner-up to Graham in last month\u2019s Senate GOP primary, with Graham receiving about 57% of the vote and Lynch about 29%. Other GOP candidates for the seat included Paul Dans, who served in the first Trump administration and helped devise the Heritage Foundation\u2019s \u201cProject 2025\u2033 agenda that has influenced the president\u2019s second term.<\/p>\n
Democrats have nominated Annie Andrews, a paediatrician, for the seat.<\/p>\n
After arriving in the Senate in 2003, Graham emerged as one of the nation\u2019s most prominent Republican lawmakers, serving as a key negotiator on foreign policy, defence, immigration and health care bills. At the time of his death, he led the Senate\u2019s Budget Committee and the appropriations subcommittee that oversees foreign policy spending. He also served as a key member of the Foreign Relations Committee.<\/p>\n
Graham was chairman of the Judiciary Committee during Trump\u2019s first administration and played a key role in confirming conservative judges and remaking the federal courts.<\/p>\n
Graham presided over the controversial October 2020 confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett, which came three weeks before that year\u2019s presidential election.<\/p>\n
He launched a presidential campaign in June 2015 but failed to gain support in polls, facing scrutiny over his conservative bona fides and his personal life. At the time, the never-married Graham promised a \u201crotating first lady\u201d if elected President.<\/p>\n
He ended his presidential campaign in December 2015, before any votes were cast. Graham subsequently endorsed former Florida Governor Jeb Bush and later Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas), saying he thought Trump was unfit to serve as President.<\/p>\n
After Trump won the GOP nomination, Graham said he chose to vote for third-party candidate Evan McMullin.<\/p>\n
But Graham emerged as a key Senate supporter of Trump during his first administration, defending the president\u2019s conduct and policies. He also argued that Trump should not be impeached after he was accused of inciting the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was an impeachment effort driven by passion and hatred against President Trump,\u201d Graham said after Trump was acquitted in February 2021.<\/p>\n
More to come<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster said in a statement that Graham was \u201cthe fiercest of fighters for South…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":522150,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[129498,1975,30811,6179,7126,2245,71,18361,42,293,116293,9851,1304,43,2551,6270,13181,20959,3048,1534,312,179062,1240,9343,10809,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-522149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-129498","tag-at","tag-carolina","tag-died","tag-dies","tag-early","tag-from","tag-graham","tag-headlines","tag-his","tag-lindsey","tag-longtime","tag-morning","tag-news","tag-night","tag-office","tag-released","tag-republican","tag-said","tag-saturday","tag-says","tag-senator","tag-south","tag-statement","tag-sunday","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=522149"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522149\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/522150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=522149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=522149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=522149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}