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BREAKING: Senator Lindsey Graham Dead At 71 · The Chuck ToddCast

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  Speaker 2: Well, good morning. Like many of you, I woke up
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  Speaker 2: on Sunday morning just stunned by the news of the
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  Speaker 2: passing of Lindsey Graham, a longtime Republican Senator from South Carolina,
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  Speaker 2: to say that he was a larger than life figure
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  Speaker 2: in the United States Senate and in our politics. As
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  Speaker 2: an understatement, Lindsey Graham is one of those people where
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  Speaker 2: in Washington, everybody has an opinion, everybody has a theory,
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  Speaker 2: everybody believes they know what makes him tick, and everybody
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  Speaker 2: in many ways, and you'll see this even now, I
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  Speaker 2: think are choosing to remember him through their own politics.
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  Speaker 2: Perhaps I don't think, at least at the moment, people
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  Speaker 2: are capturing Lindsey Graham. You know, I think it's maybe
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  Speaker 2: understanding how he his perspective on things, and maybe none
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  Speaker 2: of us can fully get inside the head of any individual.
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  Speaker 2: You're already seeing in the remembrances. You have those that
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  Speaker 2: the anti Trump side of things, remembering Lindsey Graham pre Trump.
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  Speaker 2: You have those on the right looking at Lindsey Graham
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  Speaker 2: political survivor somebody who understood how to navigate changing landscapes.
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  Speaker 2: And I think that ultimately that's you know, that's the
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  Speaker 2: Lindsey Graham. I knew he was somebody who There's two
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  Speaker 2: types of people in politics. I think there are those
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  Speaker 2: that are our ideologues, and that there are those that
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  Speaker 2: want to be in the middle of everything. Certainly have
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  Speaker 2: their own leanings, they may lean left right, but ultimately
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  Speaker 2: they want to be in the middle of every debate.
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  Speaker 2: That is probably the greatest lesson Lindsey Graham took away
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  Speaker 2: from John McCain. And I think if you understand Lindsey
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  Speaker 2: Graham through that prism. That is why he seemed to
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  Speaker 2: be involved in every story. It also will explain why
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  Speaker 2: he chose to essentially what looked like to do a
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  Speaker 2: one eid on Donald Trump, because ultimately he knew he
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  Speaker 2: understood two things, One that the Republican Party was following
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  Speaker 2: Donald Trump and not where his views were. And two,
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  Speaker 2: if he wanted to stay relevant and be in the
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  Speaker 2: middle of everything, he essentially, like a sailor, had to
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  Speaker 2: tack to where the wind was blowing as a political anthropologist.
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  Speaker 2: That's how I would explain who Lindsey Graham is. I've
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  Speaker 2: I'll have a lot more to say on my own podcast.
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  Speaker 2: You can check that out, of course, at the Chuck
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  Speaker 2: podcast about sort of my own personal interactions with him
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  Speaker 2: over the years, and I think some of those will
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  Speaker 2: help you understand sort of how I came to the
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  Speaker 2: conclusion that I've come to about who he is. I
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  Speaker 2: think this man was an incredibly, incredibly savvy politician because
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  Speaker 2: he found a way to get himself in the room,
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  Speaker 2: whether Barack Obama was president, whether Donald Trump was president. Shoot,
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  Speaker 2: he he even tried to find his way back into
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  Speaker 2: the room with Joe Biden at times. So the point
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  Speaker 2: is that's who he was. He just ultimately wanted to
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  Speaker 2: be in the middle of everything. If he had one
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  Speaker 2: north star, it wasn't international affairs, right. He stuck to
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  Speaker 2: his anti Putin mindset. Did he did he get angry
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  Speaker 2: at President Trump over it? At first he did, and
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  Speaker 2: then in his in his worldview, he was always going
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  Speaker 2: to find a way to get Trump closer to his position,
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  Speaker 2: even in the week of his death. Right, where where
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  Speaker 2: did he come from? Where did he just land from Ukraine?
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  Speaker 2: So you know, there are certainly plenty of critics of
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  Speaker 2: Graham who were going to say, you know, he didn't
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  Speaker 2: he lacked a center because he so easily moved from
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  Speaker 2: McCain to Trump. I don't think he lacked a center
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  Speaker 2: per se, because he ultimately he had one goal, stay relevant,
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  Speaker 2: stay in the middle of everything. And I think he
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  Speaker 2: really loved that senencea perhaps more more than anything other
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  Speaker 2: than his sister and her family and his extended family.
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  Speaker 2: I think that's how important that senence it was to him,
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  Speaker 2: and it may explain why he was always tacking to
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  Speaker 2: try to be Frankly, I used to say this about
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  Speaker 2: Joe Biden Joe Biden and Lindsay Graham were very similar types
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  Speaker 2: of senators. They always wanted to be in the middle
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  Speaker 2: of wherever their party was. They were never on the
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  Speaker 2: extreme end of where their party was. They were always
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  Speaker 2: in the middle. And if he thought and whatever that was,
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  Speaker 2: he wanted to put himself in the middle of the action.
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  Speaker 2: That was the hallmark of Biden the senator, and that
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  Speaker 2: was the hallmark, and that is certainly the hallmark of
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  Speaker 2: Graham the senator. Look, there's going to be a lot
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  Speaker 2: more to say in this South Carolina law. There's going
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  Speaker 2: to be a bit of chaos near term impact on
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  Speaker 2: this that I think people need to pay attention to.
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  Speaker 2: One the US Senator is trying to do a whole
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  Speaker 2: bunch of confirmations. Lindsey Graham was a key sort of
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  Speaker 2: negotiator with the Trump skeptic wing of the Republican Party.
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  Speaker 2: He was sort of the moderate whisperer, if you will,
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  Speaker 2: whether it was Lisa Murkowski or other Republicans who were
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  Speaker 2: a little bit concerned about a Trump appointee. Him being
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  Speaker 2: gone is really bad news for Donald Trump in the
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  Speaker 2: Senate because of the important sort of unofficial role Lindsey
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  Speaker 2: Graham played nobody gulfed with him more, as Tim Scott
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  Speaker 2: would say this morning. So that's a big impact. This
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  Speaker 2: may be the reason why Todd Blanch doesn't get confirmed.
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  Speaker 2: I'm pretty doubtful he can get confirmed. As it is,
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  Speaker 2: it was always an uphill battle. This may make it
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  Speaker 2: harder South Carolina. A law is very specific here. By
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  Speaker 2: the way, it is very possible because he was already
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  Speaker 2: the certified nominee of the party. There now has to
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  Speaker 2: be there's a whole procedure. There'll be a filing deadline
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  Speaker 2: two tuesdays from now, so in less than ten days,
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  Speaker 2: filing period will open. You will probably Lindsey Graham held
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  Speaker 2: this seat for over twenty five years, so I promise
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  Speaker 2: you for just about twenty five years. I promise you,
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  Speaker 2: anybody who's ever had an ambition for a sendency in South
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  Speaker 2: Carolina Republican politics is going to run because remember who
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  Speaker 2: Lindsey Graham replaced, Strom Thurman, who was in that Senate
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  Speaker 2: seat for over fifty years. Okay, so essentially two people
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  Speaker 2: have held this Senate seat for eighty years. The idea
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  Speaker 2: that you're going to see a party establishment rally around
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  Speaker 2: one candidate, Donald Trump certainly is influential. But boy, I
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  Speaker 2: have my suspicion. I think, if you're not sure if
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  Speaker 2: Nancy Mace is going to run, bet on her running.
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  Speaker 2: You're not sure if Niki Hanley's going to run, I
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  Speaker 2: might bet on her running than not running, because again,
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  Speaker 2: the perception will be if you're the Republican then holds
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  Speaker 2: the seat, you may have it for a generation, or
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  Speaker 2: if you're strom Thurman, two generations. On that front, Still,
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  Speaker 2: there is a Democratic nominee on the ballot, Annie Andrews.
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  Speaker 2: She is no gadfly, She's been running a very good campaign.
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  Speaker 2: South Carolina is a red state, but not a dark
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  Speaker 2: red state. And this is just scrambling things. Boy, welcome
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  Speaker 2: to summer of chaos. Still, we're suddenly looking for a
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  Speaker 2: Democratic nominee for Main Senate, looking for a Republican nominee
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  Speaker 2: for South Carolina Senate. So this is a reminder that
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  Speaker 2: the twist and turns of campaign twenty twenty six are
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  Speaker 2: probably going to continue to be like this, unexpected, unpredictable,
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  Speaker 2: but guided by the outside forces, which right now are
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  Speaker 2: pretty anti establishment. Another reason why I don't expect the
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  Speaker 2: Republican Party to be able to fully control this and
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  Speaker 2: not let this get a little haywire at South Carolina.
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  Speaker 2: Politics in South Carolina is a sport. I would be
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  Speaker 2: shocked if there's a coordination here. Look, we'll have more
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  Speaker 2: on this throughout the week. I'll have more on my
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  Speaker 2: own podcast, you're happy to check that out. And we'll
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  Speaker 2: have a lot more coverage new Sphere as well. So
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  Speaker 2: check me out wherever you find me at the Chuck
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  Speaker 2: Podcast on YouTube or of course on the Newsphere app
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  Speaker 2: as well. With more information quite a week, we'll have more,
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  Speaker 2: say