Days after the unexpected death of Lindsey Graham, Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) detailed a phone call between a staffer and the late senator, where he complained about chest pain.
“My former scheduler was Lindsey’s scheduler, and one of my staff members was with that scheduler the night Lindsey called,” Tuberville said. “Lindsey called … basically said, ‘Listen, I’m having chest pains. You know, I need to do something.’”
Graham’s scheduler asked if he had called 911, to which the senator replied, “No, that’s the reason I called you.”
“And so she called 911,” Tuberville added. “By the time she got there, 911 had knocked the door down, and they were working on him.”
Graham was then transported to George Washington University Hospital in Washington, where he was pronounced deceased. Graham’s office said a “brief and sudden illness” precipitated his death.
“Lindsey basically worked himself to death,” Tuberville said Monday. “You know, we all, most of us have families. He didn’t have any family. And if we had a couple of days off, he went to that airport. He went somewhere to try to work out something for our country.”
Graham, a longtime Republican senator from South Carolina, died late Saturday. He wanted to wait until after his scheduled Sunday morning appearance on NBC News’s Meet the Press to seek medical attention, according to Axios.
The 71-year-old lawmaker died from aortic dissection due to arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease, according to the medical examiner in Washington. The FBI is conducting its own toxicology report. Law enforcement searched his Capitol Hill home on Monday.
Hours before his death, Graham returned from a visit to Ukraine. His last overseas trip has fueled speculation that perhaps Russia may have been behind his death somehow. The FBI is investigating the senator’s death in case there is any foul play.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), while saying he does not “want to be a conspiracy theorist” peddling claims without evidence, supports a “full” toxicology report and autopsy into the South Carolina Republican’s death.
“Nobody had been a greater advocate of taking on Putin than Lindsey Graham,” Hawley told Fox News’s Jesse Watters Primetime. “Nobody had been tougher on the Iranians over time than Lindsey. He had a lot of enemies in the world. So I wouldn’t rule anything out.”
Graham apparently did not want to leave behind unfinished business. According to a source who spoke with the senator in his final moments, Graham joked, “I can’t die now. I still need to do the Russia sanctions, get Iran sorted out, and do Israeli-Saudi normalization.”
On Monday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) urged the upper chamber to take up Graham’s bipartisan bill on Russia sanctions in honor of his memory. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) said the measure “would be a great tribute and legacy for Lindsey” while noting it needs to run past the relevant Senate committees first. President Donald Trump, an ally of the late senator, supports the bill.
WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT DARLINE GRAHAM NORDONE, SOUTH CAROLINA’S NEWEST SENATOR
Graham’s sister, Darline Graham Nordone, was tapped by Gov. Henry McMaster (R-SC) to replace her older brother in the Senate. Trump endorsed her earlier. Nordone is set to be sworn into the upper chamber later Tuesday to finish Graham’s final year of his fourth term.
“I think this is what Lindsey would have wanted, and I plan to honor him in this way,” Nordone said as she accepted the appointment on Monday. “Now, to Lindsey, I miss you more than I can even put into words. But I’m going to do this. I got it.”