The Dictatorship
Lindsey Graham: Maddening, gracious, and an ally I was glad to have
This is the July 13, 2026, edition of “The Tea, Spilled by Morning Joe” newsletter.Subscribe hereto get it delivered straight to your inbox every Monday through Friday.
I met Lindsey Graham the day we both got sworn into Congress on Jan. 4, 1995. Over the next three decades, I found many of his political moves maddening, and his willingness to bend on fixed values distressing.
Lindsey went from idolizing a war hero in John McCain to blindly following a draft dodger. The senator moved from criticizing Donald Trump for the Jan. 6 insurrection to running defense for the chief insurrectionist himself.
At his worst, Lindsey was everything I hated about politicians. At his best, Lindsey was an ally I was glad to have.
Through it all, Graham was personally kind, gracious, self-deprecating. He rarely answered insult with insult, and when things got especially heated, Lindsey could be counted on to crack a joke that would lower the room’s temperature.
History will judge the South Carolina senator for decades of decisions he made in public life over the course of his long career. But because this flawed politician was a longtime friend — and this is my column — I want to highlight two big contributions Lindsey made to America and the world.
The first was when he joined a dozen lawmakers in shutting down Congress and threatening Speaker Newt Gingrich’s job in pursuit of a balanced budget. We became the hammer Newt used to pressure Bill Clinton into agreeing to four consecutive balanced budgets — the only time that’s happened in 100 years.
More recently, Lindsey’s fight to support Ukraine’s effort against its Russian invaders was second to none in Washington. His efforts moved him to travel to Kyiv 10 times — the final trip just days before his death.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the Ukrainian freedom fighters will certainly miss Lindsey Graham. So, too, will I.
Source: Gallup poll of 1,001 U.S. adults, June 1-15, 2026, margin of error: ±4 percentage points
WHAT THEY SAID
Katty Kay on Iranian strikes
“President Trump clearly doesn’t want to get back into a full-scale kinetic war with Iran, but these skirmishes can do enormous economic damage on their own.”
David Rohde on the White House effort to sway races
“All of this is extraordinary. Never in American history have we had every power agency working to reinforce the president’s narrative and intimidate voters. In the end, it’s going to come down to judges — they held in 2020, and they’re the last line of defense now.”
Roger Bennett on England vs. Argentina
“These two teams have not played since 2005, and their fan bases despise each other. I’m not quite sure Atlanta knows what’s coming. Any Englishman, if you say Argentina, can recount the years of deep, deep trauma behind the clashes. This is a heated rivalry — but not in the good HBO way.”
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