The family of the late Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) had barely begun mourning before political strategist Steve Schmidt published a farewell soaked in spite. Graham was “pathetic,” morally empty, parasitic, and “a most contemptible man.”
Schmidt even announced, “I won’t mourn Lindsey Graham’s death.” From Schmidt's Substack post:
Lindsey Graham was a lonely and unprincipled man who betrayed his country for power and his decency for attention.
Let it be known for all time that he knew exactly what Donald Trump was from the very beginning, and chose him over his country:
If we nominate Trump, we will get destroyed ... and we will deserve it.
I believe Donald Trump would be an absolute, utter disaster for the Republican Party, destroy conservatism as we know it.
We would get wiped out and it would take generations to overcome a Trump candidacy.
Donald Trump is not going to be the nominee of the Republican party. If he is, that’s the end of the Republican Party.
Trump is an interloper and a demagogue of the greatest proportion.
When Donald Trump attacked America, and tried to burn down the republic built by Washington, saved by Lincoln and redeemed by King, he was aided by Lindsey Graham who supported the lies, dismissed the insanity and sought personal gain from it all.
Lindsey Graham was a pathetic man, a true cynic and a faithless servant of the Constitution.
He was a simple man to understand and a tragic one. He lacked a moral core and any sense of right and wrong. The great empty spaces of his life were filled with an insatiable need for “relevance.” He found it as a cast member in the most malignant reality show ever made.
Let there be no confusion about what Lindsey Graham was. There was no complexity to the man, nor much in the way to plumb and analyze about his journey to the bottom of the Trump sewer.
I wasn’t always a Graham admirer. His Obama-era promises of Senate reckoning often produced more television appearances than results. His appetite for military action ran far beyond mine.
One day permanently changed how I viewed him.
On Sept. 27, 2018, Graham sat before then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh after Senate Democrats had turned his confirmation into a public character trial.
Christine Blasey Ford’s confidential accusation reached Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) on July 30. Feinstein, then the Judiciary Committee’s ranking Democrat, didn’t disclose the letter’s existence to the committee or the FBI until six weeks later, after Kavanaugh’s original hearings had ended.
Ford accused Kavanaugh of assaulting her when they were teenagers. Kavanaugh denied it. By the time both testified, Ford had been pulled into a national spectacle, and Kavanaugh had been branded a predator before the Senate had established what happened.
Graham finally said what millions of Americans were yelling at their televisions. He called the process “the most unethical sham” and told Democrats, “God, I hope you never get it.”
His anger was focused, specific, and earned.
Graham also refused to treat Ford as an enemy. He argued that Democrats had failed to protect her and had turned her into a tool of their strategy. He defended Kavanaugh without mocking Ford while placing responsibility on the senators who held her letter until the nomination had reached its final stage.
For those few minutes, Graham showed what elected Republicans so often lack. He recognized political cruelty, named it without hesitation, and defended a man whose family and reputation were being torn apart. He didn’t hide behind procedure, consultants, or polite Senate language.
The fire was real. Graham confronted colleagues he had known for years and told the country exactly what he believed they were doing. He risked friendships, ridicule, and the approval of Washington’s political class because Kavanaugh needed somebody willing to fight for him.
Graham’s defense of Kavanaugh outweighs much of what frustrated me about him. I’ll always be grateful for it. His stand during that hearing was priceless, and no bitter obituary written eight years later can erase it.
Schmidt erased far more than Graham’s finest hour.
Graham grew up in a blue-collar South Carolina family whose parents ran a restaurant and pool hall. He became the first member of his family to attend college. After both parents died within 15 months, he became legal guardian to his 13-year-old sister, Darline Graham Nordone.
Prior to serving in the Senate, Graham was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1994 as the first Republican from the Third Congressional District of South Carolina since 1877.
Before being elected to Congress, Graham compiled a distinguished record in the United States Air Force as he logged six-and-a-half years of service on active duty as an Air Force lawyer. From 1984-1988, he was assigned overseas and served at Rhein-Main Air Force Base in Germany. Upon leaving active duty Air Force in 1989, Graham joined the South Carolina Air National Guard where he served until 1995. During the first Gulf War in the early 90's, Graham was called to active duty and served state-side at McEntire Air National Guard Base as Staff Judge Advocate where he prepared members for deployment to the Gulf region.
In 1995, Graham joined the U.S. Air Force Reserves. During American military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, Graham put his experience in military law to use pulling numerous short-term Reserve duties in both countries over congressional breaks and holidays.
Graham retired from the Air Force Reserves in June 2015 having served his country in uniform for 33 years. He retired at the rank of Colonel.
A native South Carolinian, Graham grew up in a blue collar family in the small town of Central where his parents ran a restaurant and pool hall. The first member of his family to go to college, Graham earned his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of South Carolina. He lives in Seneca and is a member of Corinth Baptist Church.
A 2025 estimate based on his financial disclosure placed his net worth near $1.5 million, modest beside longtime lawmakers who turned congressional salaries into sprawling fortunes.
Graham’s flaws remained visible. His support for military action often seemed endless, although South Carolina’s large military presence and defense industry helped explain his focus. He consistently backed a strong military, Israel, Ukraine, overseas alliances, and aggressive responses to hostile regimes.
Many conservatives, including me, believed he was too eager to deploy American force, but he never concealed those views.
His change toward President Donald Trump was equally real. Graham once called Trump a demagogue and warned that his nomination would destroy the Republican Party. After Trump won, Graham became a close ally, golf partner, and reliable defender.
Graham’s prediction failed. Trump didn’t destroy the Republican Party. He unalterably changed it, forcing more Republican congressional critters to grow something they had rarely shown before: spines. Not all of them have found one, but progress has begun.
Schmidt can criticize Graham’s reversal without pretending his entire life was a vacant search for relevance.
He knew Graham personally through John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign. Such proximity should’ve produced greater insight, or at least a trace of proportion. Instead, Trump Derangement Syndrome reduced a complicated life to a list of insults.
Schmidt condemned Graham for surrendering his identity to Trump while writing an obituary in which Trump occupies nearly every paragraph. From his Substack column:
Let there never be any confusion over the choice Lindsey Graham made.
He chose Trump over his friend.
He chose Trump over his country.
He chose Trump over his duty.
He chose Trump over his oath.
Now he’s dead, and Trump is his rotten legacy — and in that, he won’t be alone.
In the end he made an adjudicated rapist laugh and played a lot of golf with him.
He was a warmonger and the architect of a lost war against Iran.
Lindsey Graham helped Trump divide America and break our alliances, ideals and traditions.
He was no patriot.
Lindsey Graham made his choice.
The high court of history will pass a brutal judgement about a man who knew better, but chose worse.
I won’t mourn Lindsey Graham’s death, but rather the country he helped break.
He was a most contemptible man.
Death doesn’t erase a public record or forbid criticism. It should discourage cruelty masquerading as courage. Graham’s critics have plenty to work with, from interventionism and grandstanding to his political reversal on Trump.
None of it requires stripping away his military service, family loyalty, modest financial record, defense of Brett Kavanaugh, or humanity.
Steve Schmidt meant to bury Lindsey Graham. He revealed far more about himself.
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