President Donald Trump said on Monday that he believes the late Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) would be best honored if his sister, Darline Graham Nordone, were to be appointed to serve out the remainder of his term in the U.S. Senate. Graham died late Saturday night after what his office called a “brief and sudden illness” — and what the Washington, D.C., Medical Examiner’s Office later said was an aortic dissection. Governor Henry McMaster (R-SC) is now charged with appointing someone to replace him for the rest of his current term, which ends in January 2027. An announcement is expected on Monday afternoon at 4 p.m. ET. “I recommended, to Governor Henry McMaster, Lindsey Graham’s wonderful sister, Darline, to serve as interim Senator from the Great State of South Carolina,” Trump posted Monday on his Truth Social platform. “This would be a fabulous tribute to Lindsey, who loved her dearly!” Graham and his sister have always been close. After losing both parents to illness when he was just 22 years old, Graham took over the role of raising Darline — who was just 13 years old at the time — and making sure that she got through school as well. After he graduated from law school, he legally adopted Darline so that she could receive benefits and insurance while he was serving in the United States Air Force. In an old campaign ad for the senator, Darline described her childhood and said that even before her parents passed away, “Lindsey was always the one that took care of me.” “Darline” — One of several TV spots over the years that featured Lindsey Graham’s sister Produced by Graham’s longtime media consultant Scotty Howell pic.twitter.com/o1SFKcE7bd — Medium Buying (@MediumBuying) July 13, 2026 She recalled him helping her finish homework, teaching her to ride her first bicycle, and even caring for her when she was sick. “It was hard when we lost my mom and my dad, but Lindsey assured me that he was going to take care of me and he was going to be there for me,” she said. “And he did. He never let me down … He made sure I went to college. To take on that responsibility of raising a little sister, that came from within for Lindsey — and he did a good job.” Throughout his political career — from his first days in Congress to his 2016 presidential run — Darline was by his side.

A New Mexico Democrat running for re-election in a district won by President Donald Trump thinks that too many white people are involved in outdoor conservation and recreation, according to clips unearthed by The Daily Wire.  Rep. Gabe Vasquez (D-NM) said he looked forward to a world where the outdoor spaces were “no longer white” and took shots at “white monied male” conservation organizations in multiple podcast appearances across 2022 and 2025. Vasquez, running for re-election in New Mexico’s 2nd congressional district, has a long history of attacking “white rich men” and claiming that white people have special privilege.  “There’s amazing organizations out there that are just promoting diversity, you know, amongst the outdoors and big national organizations that are slowly and finally starting to get it and actually promote policies that create more equitable access and opportunities,” Vasquez said on the Mountain and Prairie podcast in November 2025. “And so, you know, spaces that have been traditionally white will no longer be white. Secret spots will no longer be secret, and hunters and anglers and hikers and everybody in between will look different.” He argued that people should be actively happy if they see fewer white people out in nature. “And so not only should you be OK with that, not only should you tolerate that, but you should embrace that, and you should welcome a new set of outdoor users with open arms,” he added. “It’s up to us to be the change that we want to see.” Vasquez, who once said that New Mexico is built on “stolen land,” is running against Republican candidate Greg Cunningham in a race the GOP sees as a potential pickup. Trump won the district by about 2 percentage points in 2024.  The Democrat lawmaker started an environmental group called Nuestra Tierra in 2017, an organization that complains that “public lands are predominantly occupied by white folks,” pointing to statistics that show visitors to National Forest lands were mainly white.  Later in the Mountain and Prairie podcast, Vasquez claimed that the New Mexico Wildlife Federation, a nature advocacy organization, had no credibility with Hispanics because it has been historically led by white men.  “I think still today, I think every single executive director of the New Mexico Wildlife Federation up until today has been a white male,” he said. “And so there’s no cultural connection there.” Vasquez, who frequently touts his bipartisan credentials, has long pushed for so-called equity in outdoor recreation and conservation.  In an appearance on The Trail Ahead podcast in June 2022, he said he started a conservation organization because he wanted a group led by an “all people of color board” that would send a message that “conservation/environmental organizations don’t all have to be white.” “We are the guardians of these places that we all love and live in,” he said. “And nobody can take that away from us as long as we’re able to be here. And so that comes with inherently more power than any white-monied-male organization has, especially coming from the outside or without as deep history or cultural understanding of what those respective communities represent and who they are.” During the podcast, he noted his efforts to push for New Mexico’s “Outdoor Equity Fund,” a government-sponsored grant program for outdoor programming.  Vasquez, who describes himself as a first-generation immigrant from Mexico who has lived on “both sides of the border,” said in the podcast that he has lost consulting opportunities because of his race. “I have missed out on a whole lot of opportunities just because I’ve asked for compensation, and it shouldn’t have to be that way because if I was a white consultant working with a major brand or a major nonprofit,” he said.  A review of his social media shows that Vasquez has consistently made derogatory comments directed at white people, who make up about 30% of his district.  “As long as white folks (mostly men!) dominate this nation’s wealth & preside over our nation’s governing bodies & judicial systems, the racism, killing & injustice will continue,” he posted in May 2020. “We need a fundamental power shift in this country & it starts with electing black, indigenous & POC.” In another post from June 2020, he bashed “white rich men.”  “Black lives matter. Until we deconstruct and rebuild the systems of oppression that keep black people in perpetual harm, justice will not be served,” he said in June 2020. “That includes law enforcement, the economy, and the disgusting wealth inequality that keeps white rich men in power.” Other posts lambasted the Supreme Court as being great for “straight white males,” and another said history classrooms had been dominated by the “white, male colonialist” perspective. 

Progressives think the sudden death of Lindsey Graham is a big joke. Brought to you by the party that idolizes Luigi Mangione and decided abusing women was bad only when a Democrat got hurt, the latest internet craze is slinging insults and making vulgar wisecracks at the expense of the late South Carolina senator. Leftist commentator Ana Kasparian said she was “elated” and “overjoyed” at the news of Graham’s death. One tweet with 129,000 likes exclaims, “Lindsey Graham AND Mitch McConnell in the same year?!” (Sorry to disappoint these brutes, but McConnell is, in fact, alive). “Expecting Mitch McConnell but getting Lindsey Graham is like ordering a chocolate chip cookie but getting a snickerdoodle. I’m confused, but not upset,” said someone else. Other comments with tens of thousands of likes make crass sexual remarks that don’t deserve repeating.  Another person threw chum to the feeding frenzy: “Ever wake up and quickly realize the internet is going to be funny funny for the next 12 hours[?]” You know it’s bad when Kamala Harris has one of the better things to say. “I am saddened to learn of the passing of my former colleague, Senator Lindsey Graham,” the former vice president tweeted on Sunday. “He was full of wit, energy, and charm, and he cared deeply about the Senate and the people of South Carolina.” Unsurprisingly, however, Harris’s comments are full of leftists complaining that she was too nice. “Really bugs me when politicians give their evil colleagues eulogies like this,” one said. “He was a racist war monger who gave [sic] two sh*ts about Americans.” Whether or not Harris means it, it’s the thought — that expressing sadness at the death of a political opponent is the right thing to do — that counts. Politics is nothing without phoniness, but this is the kind of performative well-wishing we should support. President Donald Trump rightly received bipartisan criticism for his tweet minimizing the gruesome death of anti-Trump director Rob Reiner. If you have ill-will toward the dead, you might consider keeping it to yourself.  But wishing violence upon people who hold what the wisher considers to be the “wrong” political leanings, usually conservative ones, is now so normal that we barely even register it. Leftists on X are constantly joking about “it” happening and wanting to be ready to enjoy it when “it happens.” What they mean is the death of President Trump, who has already survived six assassination attempts.  The good news is this way of thinking is still abhorrent to normal Americans. YouGov polling in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s fatal shooting found “Americans overall are far more likely to say it’s always or usually unacceptable to be happy about the death of a public figure they oppose, than they are to say this is acceptable (77% vs. 8%).” The group does note a disparity, that “liberal Americans are more likely than conservatives to defend feeling joy about the deaths of political opponents.” That explains why cracking jokes about Charlie Kirk, specifically about his death, has become popular among internet leftists over the past year. Generation Z is so numb to political violence that the audio of the shooting was trending this spring for TikToks about outfit changes and hair transformations. The brutal death of a husband and father became a ploy for engagement so 20-year-olds could literally dance on his metaphorical grave.  For Republicans who have the misfortune to die for whatever reason, the leftist message is simple. “Live your life in such a way that more than half of Al Gore’s internet doesn’t celebrate when the news of your death breaks at 2:30am,” one person on Threads said.  Short of changing your politics so people aren’t happy when you die — something that sounds more apace with Chairman Mao’s China than modern America — there’s only one thing to do. The answer here is the same thing it was during the era of Peak Woke, the thing that eventually helped weaken the tyranny of cancel culture and restore some sanity to the public sphere: Never give in to bullying. Those of us who remain in the land of the living have a responsibility to do what we think is right even in the face of great cruelty. The leftists fulminating over his death wish they could have half the influence Graham did over his lifetime. Graham himself offers some guidance on how to respond when people have horrible things to say in the face of death. Consider what he said about Trump’s treatment of Graham’s good friend, the late Senator John McCain.  “It bothers me greatly when the president says things about John McCain,” Graham said in 2018, just days after McCain’s passing. “It pisses me off to no end, and I’ll let the president know it. The way he’s handled the passing of John is just disturbing.” Speaking well of the dead, or at least not openly mocking them, seems to be outdated etiquette in our post-norms age. But we can’t let this vicious rhetoric pass without pushback. What once seemed to be common sense is now worth emphasizing: Celebrating the death of your political enemy doesn’t make you the good guy.

The Justice Department unleashed a barrage of grand jury subpoenas, sending federal agents to the doorsteps of four New York Times reporters who wrote a story that the FBI warned would compromise highly classified national security secrets and give America’s enemies a roadmap to the commander-in-chief’s vulnerabilities. The Times admitted on Saturday that according to federal law enforcement sources, a top FBI official contacted “a reporter and a senior editor,” asking them to kill a story citing unnamed sources about President Donald Trump departing Turkey on the old Air Force One instead of the new Qatari-gifted jet. The Times ignored the FBI’s urgent request, slammed the “publish” button, and refused to unmask who leaked the classified information in the first place. Now, the Justice Department is bringing down the hammer. New York Times scribes Julian E. Barnes, Eric Lipton, Tyler Pager, and Eric Schmitt have been ordered to appear before a Manhattan grand jury to answer for the breach. “Reporters are not the targets, those leaking classified information are,” a DOJ spokesman stated. The administration made it clear it isn’t playing games when it comes to the nation’s secrets. “We are not going to ignore the law and stop investigating the people who work in the administration and think it’s okay to leak classified information impacting national security,” the spokesman added. The drama started after the Times published details of the security protocols of Trump’s new Qatari-donated Boeing 747-8, claiming it lacked antimissile defenses. The paper suggested that the classified leaks explained why the Secret Service briefly put Trump on the older aircraft during a high-stakes NATO summit in Turkey while tensions flared with Iran. White House Communications Director Steven Cheung blasted the reporting, confirming that the new jet is a “state-of-the-art aircraft” packed with high-level security protocols. “There are many enemies of America who have their sights on him, and we use every tool at our disposal — including distraction and misdirection — to address those threats,” Cheung said. The Times immediately started crying foul, with their top newsroom lawyer David McCraw complaining that the home-visit subpoenas were a “brazen act” and meant to “shock the conscience.” “This brazen act should be seen as nothing more than an attempt to prevent the public from knowing what is happening in their country,” McCraw said.

Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) reportedly joked hours before his sudden death that he couldn’t die because he had too many things to get done in the Senate.  “I can’t die now. I still need to do the Russia sanctions, get Iran sorted out and do Israeli-Saudi normalization,” Graham said on Saturday after saying he felt poorly, according to a source who spoke to Axios.  The source said that Graham agreed to see a doctor after a Sunday morning appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” after being encouraged to get immediate medical attention.  Initial tests by the Medical Examiner of Washington, District of Columbia, found that Graham appears to have died from Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease (ASCVD), a condition in which plaque — made up of calcium, fatty deposits, and cholesterol — sticks to the interior walls of arteries. The condition can lead to high blood pressure, causing strokes and heart attacks.  Graham made the comments shortly after a phone call with President Donald Trump. He asked the president to impose strict sanctions on Russia amid its war with Ukraine. The South Carolina Republican had recently returned from a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.  Graham and Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), and Senator Roger Wicker (R-MS) recently reached an agreement with the Trump administration to move forward on a Russia sanctions package.  Trump detailed his final call with Graham in an interview with NBC News. He said the two discussed getting the SAVE Act across the finish line, a proposal that would require photo ID to vote in federal elections.  “He actually said he was tired, but he wanted to pass the SAVE America Act, and I said, ‘Well, we’re going to get it done, Lindsey. We’re going to get it done,’” Trump said.  The president added that “other than being tired,” Graham seemed fine and described him as “like a member of the family to me.” Trump announced Sunday that he had directed all American flags to be lowered until next Saturday in honor of Graham, calling him “a dear friend of mine” and “a truly great man.”