Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) took a moment on Sunday to reflect on his friendship with his late colleague, Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC). Graham’s office had announced his passing overnight, stating that his death had been the result of a “brief and sudden illness” — and later reports confirmed that EMTs had been called to his Capitol Hill residence to assist with a man in his 70s who was suffering from cardiac arrest. While many of Graham’s fellow senators shared their thoughts via social media, Booker spoke directly to the camera to tell a behind-the-scenes story about his colleague and friend. WATCH: I am stunned by Senator Graham’s passing, and thinking back this morning about some of the work we did together. My prayers are with his family and all who cherished him. Rest in Peace. pic.twitter.com/cPUXDQxk1B — Cory Booker (@CoryBooker) July 12, 2026 Booker dove right in with a story about his first real interaction with Graham, saying that when he was elected to the Senate, his first priority was to get something done on mass incarceration — and when he talked to colleagues like Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL), they all told him that Graham was the guy he wanted on board. The New Jersey senator said that when he approached Graham, he was initially told to come back later — Graham was in the middle of a contested primary against an opponent he described as “bat-sh*t crazy,” and needed to get that behind him before he could do the next thing. So Booker waited, and Graham won his primary — and then Booker came back to see him. “I laughed, and came back to him after the primary,” Booker said. “And true to his word, he rolled up his sleeves and we went to work. And thanks to him and Dick Durbin and some other Senate heroes, our bill became The First Step Act — after years, two presidents, two Congresses, it became law.” Booker went on to describe the scene as the bill was going through final revisions, when he was trying to get one last provision squeezed in about “children being put in solitary confinement” — and a White House official assured him that it was not going to happen. The official then proceeded to get Graham on the phone, thinking that the South Carolina senator would give a similar response. “So he gets the White House operator to connect Lindsey Graham on the phone, and Lindsey Graham listens for maybe a hot second and then interrupts the guy,” Booker explained. “And says, ‘Are you kidding me? We need Cory Booker to get this bill done. We can’t do it without him, give him what he wants.’ And it’s in the bill.” Booker quoted one of the White House negotiators who told him early on in the process that Graham was the political equivalent of “an unguided missile.” “That, God, you never knew which way he was going to go — whether he would come back and hit you — but when he was aligned, when he would be in the right place at the right time, man, he could get things done that other people couldn’t and bring a lot of light and new possibilities to the efforts.” “I am stunned at Lindsey Graham’s death,” Booker concluded. “But I pray that he is reunited with his friend [the late Arizona Republican senator] John McCain, that they both are experiencing God’s love, grace, mercy, and forgiveness … I will miss my — perhaps most unexpected — friend in the Senate, someone with whom I got some good things done.”

Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) shared a photo from his hospital bed — and delivered a long-awaited explanation regarding his twenty-eight day absence from the Senate: pneumonia. Despite spending the last month in the hospital — after being admitted on June 14 — the former Senate Majority Leader said that he plans to return to the Senate to complete his term. “I still have unfinished business to complete on your behalf, and I have every intention of finishing the job you elected me to do,” he said. McConnell added that he has been working closely with his legislative staff from the hospital — who have been briefing him as often as it is warranted — so that he can keep abreast of the most current issues before the Senate. MCCONNELL releases a photo – and statement. “To my fellow Kentuckians – “When you elected me to a seventh term and made me our Commonwealth’s longest serving Senator, you did so trusting that I’d keep showing up to fight for you every day. And over the past several weeks,… pic.twitter.com/YTzTXDhEgu — Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) July 12, 2026 McConnell also shared that he has been in close contact with a number of his colleagues in the Senate — but the longer he remained out of sight, the more rumors began to swirl suggesting that something far worse might have happened to him. After several colleagues attempted to quash the rumors by issuing statements detailing their conversations with McConnell, a joke quickly emerged: people would claim to have spoken to McConnell, and then detail outlandish things that they said transpired during their discussions. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), wrote last week, “I spoke to McConnell for about 20 minutes this morning. He said we should end the war with Iran, quit giving aid to Israel, stop spying on Americans without a warrant, and he’s really sorry about how my primary turned out.”  But McConnell’s own recent statements contradict Massie’s claims: the Kentucky senator told the American people in April that he was fully supportive of President Donald Trump’s military actions in Iran. “They’ve been at war with us for 47 years. They’ve killed Americans, they’ve killed Israelis, they’ve killed throughout the region, our Sunni Muslim allies … they are bad guys,” he said.  Despite McConnell’s stated eagerness to get back to work, he says his doctors told him it will take time. “As much as it frustrates me, this process takes time. And on the advice of my doctors, I won’t be able to return to the Senate floor to vote quite yet.” McConnell revealed he’s recovering from an initial fall that left him “briefly unconscious.” During his hospital stay, he contracted “a mild case of pneumonia.” McConnell gave an overall status update on his health saying he hadn’t broken any bones, suffered a stroke or heart attack, and did not have any tumors or hemorrhages.  McConnell’s wife, former U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao, was pictured next to him with his hand behind his back smiling. Chao had been in China just days prior where she issued an update on her husband’s health. She had said his condition did not require her to return from China early. Calls reportedly from dispatchers and Emergency services were released from the day of his hospitalization where dispatchers mentioned “cardiac arrest” and “CPR.”

The Medical Examiner of Washington, District of Columbia, released preliminary details on Sunday after examining the body of deceased Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC). Graham’s office shared a statement with several outlets on Sunday afternoon, revealing details about what the ME believed had caused the senator’s sudden death at the age of 71: “Aortic Dissection due to Arteriosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease.” According to the statement, the findings are preliminary until all forensic testing — including both microscopic and toxicological — has been completed. “The death certificate will be PENDING until all the toxicological and microscopic testing are finalized and at that point the death certificate will be updated to reflect the cause of death and appropriately classify the manner of death,” it read. Arteriosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease (ASCVD) is a condition in which plaque — made up of calcium, fatty deposits, and cholesterol — sticks to the interior walls of arteries, causing them to become more narrow and less flexible over time. The restriction of blood flow leads to a number of serious conditions, from high blood pressure and Coronary Artery Disease to heart attacks and strokes. The aorta is the largest artery in the body, and aortic dissection — a tear in the wall of the aorta — is an immediately life-threatening condition characterized by sharp pain in the chest or back. The same condition was responsible for the sudden deaths of actors Alan Thicke in 2016 and John Ritter in 2003. According to a report published Sunday by The New York Post, EMTs were dispatched to Graham’s Capitol Hill residence at 8:30 p.m. local time to assist a man who was suffering from sever chest pains. Approximately 25 minutes later, emergency responders confirmed that they were performing CPR on a man in his 70s following a sudden cardiac arrest. Their arrival, according to the same report, was initially complicated by a dead-bolted door — one that the unidentified 911-caller had said was likely to be unlocked. The caller was reportedly en route from Baltimore, Maryland, to Graham’s location at the time the call was made. Graham was transported from his residence to George Washington University Hospital at approximately 9:30 p.m., and within a few hours, his office had published a statement confirming his death from a “brief and sudden illness.” President Donald Trump offered his thoughts on the matter almost immediately, and even stepped in to do the “Meet the Press” interview Graham had been scheduled to do on Sunday morning — but when asked about Iran, he made it clear that he was only there to talk about his friend. Later in the day, Trump announced via his Truth Social platform that flags across the nation would be lowered in Graham’s honor for the next week: “In honor of the remarkable life and achievements of Senator Lindsey Graham, a dear friend of mine, and a truly great man, who achieved so much for our Country, and his beloved Home State of South Carolina, I am ordering all American Flags throughout the United States lowered to Half Mast until Saturday evening at 6 P.M. GOD BLESS YOU LINDSEY!”

WASHINGTON — Vice President JD Vance says the negotiations with Iran will last as long as the president wants him negotiating with Iran. “We’re going to keep on talking so long as the president tells us to do so,” Vance told The Daily Wire in a wide-ranging interview as the cease fire with Iran broke down. “When the president says stop talking to the Iranians, then we’ll stop talking to the Iranians.” The tense ceasefire between the United States and Iran went up in flames last week, with President Donald Trump declaring the U.S.-Iran memorandum of understanding and the ceasefire dead after the Iranians attacked commercial shipping vessels in the Strait of Hormuz. The president called Iran’s leaders “scum” and “sick people,” but said he would allow negotiations to continue. Asked if he personally wants to negotiate with Iran, the vice president said the administration is moving in lockstep together on the process with Iran. “What so many people from the outside of the administration don’t appreciate is that we all have obviously very robust conversations about how to solve this or that problem, but when the president makes a decision, we follow that decision,” he added. “And right now, the decision is talk to the Iranians. And when the decision becomes stop talking, obviously I’ll be the first to know.” Vance told The Daily Wire that the “first and most important step” forward is for the Iranians to honor the agreement between Iran and the United States, and pointed to it as a success of the MOU that Iran is failing to uphold its end of the agreement. “I always found it a little curious,” he added, “You know, there was so much criticism of the original MOU, oftentimes before people had even read the language, and I think what we’re finding is that the MOU was in fact a very good deal for the United States of America because the Iranians are struggling to keep even its first and most important term, which is that the Strait of Hormuz has to be open during negotiation.” US Vice President JD Vance as he boards Air Force Two after attending talks on Iran in Islamabad on April 12, 2026. (Photo by Jacquelyn MARTIN / POOL / AFP via Getty Images) The United States knew that keeping the Strait of Hormuz open was a big deal for the Iranians and demanded this point as an “extraction” before even sitting down at the table and Iran conceded it, Vance said.  “And having conceded it, you see some people within their country saying, ‘Well, maybe we shouldn’t have conceded it.’ Well, that’s that’s between them and their leadership. But fundamentally, when you make a deal with the United States, you have to honor it. And if they’re going to shoot at ships, we’re going to shoot back.” If Iran is not going to take the negotiation seriously, Vance said, the United States will not either.  “The most important next step is that the Iranians need to make it very clear that they are done acting like a terrorist nation that shoots at commercial shipping,” he emphasized. “And if they don’t do that, we’re not going to make any additional progress, and none of the benefits that are contemplated in the final negotiation are ever going to flow to the Iranians.”  Pressed to address concerns that there doesn’t appear to be an off-ramp to the conflict with prospects for a deal broken down, Vance said that every strike has a purpose and reiterated that “Donald Trump doesn’t do endless wars.” Right now the strikes are aimed at keeping the Strait of Hormuz operational, he said. “Every strike that we’ve done is attached to a very discreet objective that he’s trying to accomplish for the American people, and you know what he’s doing fundamentally right now, is he’s focused on ensuring that commercial shipping, the free flow of oil and gas happens in that region of the world because the benefits ultimately flow to the American people,” Vance explained.  Vance said that the United States has already destroyed Iran’s nuclear program, saying, “we can take further action there, but you know we’re in a situation where we have a lot of optionality.” “But I’m not worried, and I don’t think the American people should be worried, that this will become a war without objective,” he said. “That’s what an endless war is — something that just goes on forever and ever without a clear objective. The president has identified clear objectives.” Vance added: “We actually did stop shooting, as everybody knows well. And what changed that? It was when the Iranians violated the deal and started to shoot at commercial shipping. “It’s important for the United States to enforce its red lines,” Vance said. “That doesn’t mean that we have endless war and this conflict or any other.”

The lion’s share of tributes pouring in for Lindsey Graham, who died unexpectedly over the weekend at 71, will rightly focus on his commitment to bolstering American national security. But there’s another aspect of his legacy that warrants celebration and reflection. In between his crusades to seat President Donald Trump’s nominees and defend democracy abroad, the late senator from South Carolina led one of the last true efforts to fix American health care. With his death, the last of the Republican health care reformers is gone. We ought to reflect on this fact as we honor his life of public service. Graham was one of the earliest and most vocal opponents of the Affordable Care Act. “A government-run, government-controlled system will increase costs, reduce patient choice, and eventually lead to rationing of care,” Graham said after President Barack Obama unveiled his signature healthcare proposal in 2009. A year later, Graham lamented the damage Obamacare’s passage had done to American health care and the legislative process, saying, “the well has been poisoned.” In the years that followed, Graham never gave up the fight. But unlike many of his colleagues, he did more than occasionally call for “repeal and replace.” In 2017, a succession of GOP reform bills fell in rapid succession, ending when Graham’s friend, Senator John McCain, famously gave a “thumbs down” to the Health Care Freedom Act of 2017. Undeterred, Graham joined with Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy to introduce an amendment to a budget reconciliation bill that would come to be known, colloquially, as “Graham-Cassidy.” The package would have taken all the money that Obamacare allocated for premium credits and Medicaid expansion — $1.2 trillion over six years — and distributed it to the states through block grants. “The Graham-Cassidy plan is built on the premise that the federal government should remove itself from many of the difficult policy decisions concerning how health insurance is subsidized and regulated,” the American Enterprise Institute’s James Capretta and Joseph Antos wrote at the time. The bill, they said, “would provide substantial flexibility to the states to design entirely different ways of subsidizing and regulating health insurance in the individual market.” The bill would have saved taxpayer money while giving more resources directly to states. It would have helped lawmakers crack down on fraud. And, perhaps most shockingly in retrospect, it would have guaranteed access to affordable coverage for Americans with pre-existing conditions. Graham-Cassidy would have allowed every state to innovate and design competitive insurance marketplaces that fit their unique needs, essentially removing Obamacare’s inefficiencies and problems without hurting the safety net. There was a lot more to Graham-Cassidy — it repealed the individual mandate, capped federal Medicaid contributions, among other things — but the crux of the bill was returning control to the states. Today we tend to dismiss this kind of policy as a cop-out. But at the time, returning control to the states was seen on the Right as the best way to fix Obamacare. Graham was no fan of the ACA, as we saw. But he understood that a straight repeal was likely impossible, and instead focused his efforts on reform, giving relief to Americans priced out of the individual market and giving freedom to the states. Graham was one of the last, but certainly not the only, Republican who affixed his name to a smart healthcare reform bill. Republican Senators Tom Coburn (OK), Richard Burr (NC), and Orrin Hatch (Utah) introduced their eponymous reform bill in 2014. When Coburn retired from the Senate later that year, Congressman Fred Upton (MI) took his spot on the legislation. Neither version of the bill passed, and all of its sponsors have moved on. Coburn died in 2020, and Hatch followed two years later. Burr retired in 2022, Upton in 2023. And Cassidy lost his primary just this year, in a large part because he continued pushing nuanced but increasingly unpopular health care policies well into President Trump’s second term. Republicans have yet to replace Graham and his fellow reformers. McCain’s no vote on Obamacare repeal temporarily chilled Republican reform efforts. Shortly thereafter, the coronavirus pandemic and subsequent election of Joe Biden would fundamentally reshape American health policy for the worse. The Republican Party, long willing to push for entitlement reform, fell captive to populist members and leaders who pledged to never cut Medicare and Medicaid. The ongoing vaccine debate has made hating the pharmaceutical industry a rare area of bipartisan agreement, a change that has all but ended any push for innovation or reform. The result is that no one wants to fix health care anymore. Republicans are scared to upset the status quo, and Democrats, realizing that they’ve essentially won the war, have mostly pumped the brakes on their more radical attempts to push American health care to the Left, perhaps the last thing that would have motivated Republicans to make another push for reform. Graham’s death did not cause or hasten any of these developments. But it is a stark reminder of what Republicans have lost, in the Senate and elsewhere. Graham was one of the last senators who consistently acted on the courage of his convictions, who was willing to do the complicated, ugly, and often unpopular work of real legislating and serious policymaking. His party changed and public opinion turned, but Lindsey Graham never stopped fighting for what he knew to be right and what he knew was best for the American people. May his legacy inspire other lawmakers to pick up his mantle.