California\u2019s two Democratic senators and a San Diego County congressman were paying tribute to Lindsey Graham Sunday after the longtime South Carolina senator died suddenly and unexpectedly at the age of 71.<\/p>\n
Graham\u2019s office released a statement late Saturday night saying that the Republican senator \u201cpassed away from a brief and sudden illness\u201d on Saturday evening.<\/p>\n
On Sunday afternoon, the senator\u2019s office reported that the District of Columbia medical examiner issued a preliminary finding that the cause of death was a tearing of the aortic wall due to arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we\u2019re all trying to wrap our heads around this giant loss,\u201d Sen. Adam Schiff told Kristen Welker on NBC\u2019s \u201cMeet the Press\u201d Sunday morning.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was one of those figures that was really larger than life, that was so filled with energy that it\u2019s hard to imagine him gone,\u201d Schiff continued. \u201cBut you have folks in political life who can disagree and not be disagreeable about it. \u2026 He had, as Tim Scott was alluding to, a wonderful sense of humor that he used to cut through the tension. He used that sense of humor in a self-effacing way. He would make jests about his colleagues on both sides of the aisle. And he was just, I think, wonderful to travel with. I had the opportunity to go with him around the world to see the respect that world leaders had for him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think those of us in the Senate, as well as around the world, understood how close he was to the president. Many of us consider him the Trump whisperer. If we wanted to know what the president\u2019s thinking was, or how he might be moved on something, you would go to Lindsey to discuss it. But what I remember most about Lindsey, what I would treasure most about him was his just very quick wit, his wonderful sense of humor,\u201d Schiff said. \u201cAnd how he deployed it to move his policy positions forward. His tremendous grasp of foreign policy, his staunch support of Ukraine, which I think will be a big part of his legacy as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sen. Alex Padilla released the following statement Sunday morning:<\/p>\n
\u201cI am shocked to hear of the sudden passing of Senator Graham. While we disagreed on much, I respect Lindsey\u2019s dedication to public service, from his time in the military, the House of Representatives, and the Senate. Angela and I are praying for his loved ones during this incredibly difficult time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Bonsall, posted the following statement on X:<\/p>\n
\u201cShocking and terrible news. Lindsey Graham was great to know and work with \u2013 and he is already missed.\u201d Issa also re-posted a photo of Graham accompanied by the caption: \u201cOne of a kind.\u201d<\/p>\n
President Donald Trump posted the following statement on Truth Social:<\/p>\n
\u201cSenator Lindsey Graham, one of the greatest people and Senators I have ever known, is dead! He was always working, and was a true American Patriot. Lindsey will be greatly missed!!! \u2026 So sad!\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump later told \u201cMeet the Press\u201d that he spoke with Graham by phone Saturday night after returning from a trip to Ukraine. \u201cHe sounded a little bit tired, but perfect,\u201d the president said.<\/p>\n
After graduating from the University of South Carolina, Graham was a U.S. Air Force lawyer who later served in the South Carolina Air National Guard and U.S. Air Force Reserve. He was elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives and then to the U.S. House of Representatives, before his election to the U.S. Senate in 2002.<\/p>\n
Graham was a conservative and foreign policy hawk who championed the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. He later became a staunch advocate for Trump\u2019s policies, after initially delivering harsh criticism of Trump\u2019s character during the 2016 presidential campaign, when Graham unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination himself.<\/p>\n
Graham\u2019s death is not expected to affect the balance of power in the Senate. Gov. Henry McMaster will appoint a temporary replacement for Graham, and South Carolina is considered a safe Republican state for November\u2019s election.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"California\u2019s two Democratic senators and a San Diego County congressman were paying tribute to Lindsey Graham Sunday after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":396344,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[154604,74,76,75,73922,26478],"class_list":["post-396343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-rep-darrell-issa","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-sen-adam-schiff","tag-sen-alex-padilla"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=396343"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396343\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/396344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=396343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=396343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=396343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}