Remembering Lindsey Graham and Replacing Graham Platner
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
I've talked to families who said they spent $150 to go bowling with their kids on the weekend for a couple hours.
Hey everybody, and welcome to Here's the Scoop from NBC News. I'm Yasmin Basugian. So today on the show, bowling is breaking the bank. What does Wall Street have to do with it? Plus, a political organizer who helped bring a sexual assault allegation against Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner to light talks about how she's pushing for more accountability in politics. Up first, though, the sudden death of South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham on Saturday night has added yet another twist to the midterms. So Graham was up for reelection in November after representing his state for 24 years in the Senate. His hometown pastor says the position defined him.
He loved his job and he loved America. And so, you know, we would talk about other things, but it always went back to America.
Now with Graham gone and Senator Mitch McConnell dealing with health issues, Republicans are grappling with their slim majority in Congress in an incredibly tense political moment. So I want to turn to NBC News Chief Capitol Hill Correspondent Ryan Nobles, who has been covering Senator Graham for years. Hey, Ryan.
Hey, Yaz. Thanks for having me.
It's good to have you. Senator Graham was elected to Congress back in 2002, to the Senate specifically. What would you say he will be most remembered for? What is his legacy?
I think overall, in the grand scheme of Lindsey Graham's career, the thing that will most be remembered was how he was at the center of everything. You talk about immigration, you talk about foreign conflicts, wars, budgets, spending showdowns, government shutdowns. Lindsey Graham always had an opinion and he was always in the room where it happened. He found a way to have relationships with everyone in leadership, the most important members of the Senate, the most important members of the House, but also presidents. Obviously, We could talk ad nauseum about his relationship with Donald Trump, how complex that was. But he also had good relationships with Joe Biden. They had a deep, long friendship.
He had a relationship with Barack Obama. He had a unique sense of how to get access to power, to develop a relationship with those in power, and then to use that power toward his policy goals.
You mentioned former President Biden in his statement after Lindsey Graham's passing. He mentioned serving on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee alongside Lindsey Graham and talking about how they didn't necessarily agree on a lot of issues. They had a lot of shouting matches. And I'm paraphrasing some of the statement from the former president, but nonetheless reminding folks, right, how much Lindsey Graham's presence meant, especially when it came to foreign policy. Right. Lindsey Graham just returned from a trip to Ukraine.
How did Lindsey Graham’s death reshape the midterm landscape in South Carolina and Washington?
He was a staunch advocate for Israel, and he was advising most recently the president on the war with Iran, the ongoing war with Iran. How is this going to affect the president's focus when it comes to some of these foreign policy issues that remain overseas?
I think it's important to keep in mind that Lindsey Graham's position as a foreign policy hawk, as someone who believed in American intervention, believed in using American military might across the world, that was for years a pretty standard and conventional Republican position. It is no longer a standard and conventional Republican position. In fact, that position is fading in the Republican Party in a big way. Donald Trump was among the leaders in kind of stepping back from that idea of, of the United States being the policeman of the world. That was kind of a bedrock of Trump's America First policies. But it is because of the relationships of powerful players like Lindsey Graham that Donald Trump kind of looked at the situation in Iran in a different light than he did with some of these other foreign conflicts around the world and decided that Iran's threat was big enough that the United States needed to intervene.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–3:00
2
How did Lindsey Graham’s death reshape the midterm landscape in South Carolina and Washington?
3:00–7:42
3
What legacy did Lindsey Graham leave on foreign policy and relationships with presidents?
7:42–17:38
4
How might Graham’s absence affect U.S. strategy on Iran and interventionist Republicans?
17:38–24:21
5
What does Graham’s death mean for the 2024 Senate race and the open primary in South Carolina?
24:21–29:17
Speakers
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