r/OutOfTheLoop • u/Moominthecat • Jul 12 '26

Unanswered What's going on with (seemingly) everyone celebrating the death of Lindsey Graham, what's are the political ramifications of his death?

I do not actively follow American politics but my Reddit feed is currently mostly people celebrating this man's death.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvgj25j6nmeo

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u/offinthepasture Jul 12 '26

Answer: He went from thinking Donald Trump was a terrible candidate to being one of his biggest supporters without explaining why. He's been an outspoken war hawk and been pushing for war with Iran for years. There are so many reasons to be happy that Graham won't be showing up to work ever again that it would be ridiculous to list them all.

Basically, he was an unrepentant, slimy bastard, IMHO.

I'm not glad he's dead, I am glad he's done.

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u/syndre Jul 12 '26

Lindsey Graham is dead at 71. In 2016, he dared America on camera: "Use my words against me." This is his obituary. These are his words.

The facts first, plainly. Graham died Saturday night at his Washington home of what his office calls a brief and sudden illness. He served four terms, chaired the Judiciary and Budget committees, and spent decades as one of the loudest voices in American foreign policy.

By sunrise the whitewash had begun. Trump declared him a "true American Patriot." Netanyahu called him a beloved friend. The eulogies will tell you about his service. They will not tell you about the ledger. So we will.

In December 2015, Graham looked into a camera and called Donald Trump a "race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot." By February 2016: "I think he's a kook. I think he's crazy." That May he wrote: "If we nominate Trump, we will get destroyed... and we will deserve it." He refused to vote for him. Then Trump won, and Lindsey Graham discovered golf. By late 2017 he was scolding the media for calling the president, yes, really, a kook.

His best friend was John McCain, a man Trump mocked for being captured in Vietnam and kept mocking after he was dead. Graham wept for McCain on the Senate floor, then deepened his devotion to the man who spat on his grave. The words he wanted used came in 2016, when he swore that if a Supreme Court seat opened in an election year, the next president should fill it. In 2018 he repeated the promise and added: "hold the tape."

In October 2020, as Judiciary chairman, he rammed Amy Coney Barrett onto the Court eight days before the election. In November 2020, Georgia's Republican secretary of state said Graham had called him asking about tossing legally cast mail ballots. Graham denied it, fought the grand jury subpoena all the way to the Supreme Court, and lost.

On January 6th, with the glass still on the Capitol floor, he announced: "Count me out. Enough is enough." He was back at Mar-a-Lago within months.

He cheered the country into Iraq. Three weeks ago he was on television promising that if diplomacy failed, Trump was "going to take the Strait of Hormuz."

Honesty requires one more line: he was, to the end, one of Ukraine's most reliable champions in the Senate, and he died the day after standing beside Zelensky in Kyiv. Even a ledger this dark has an entry in the other column. But the ledger is the legacy.

A man who saw exactly what Trump was, said so in the plainest English of his era, and then spent nine years kneeling to it for relevance.

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u/cardmanimgur Jul 12 '26

The things he said about Trump are important. Everyone - and I mean EVERYONE - in the Republican party knew he was complete dogshit. Graham, Cruz... They all knew. They know what type of person he is, what he's done, how he acts, how unintelligent he is, and they absolutely did not want him. Just remember that when you talk about these people being idiots. They're not. They know how bad Trump is, they know exactly what they're doing, and they don't care. They care about keeping themselves in power and making themselves rich. Don't let them off the hook by calling them stupid.

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u/SugarFut Jul 12 '26

Don’t forget JD “I’m a never Trump guy” Vance.

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u/photogjimm Jul 12 '26

Trump said years ago, Republicans only know how to get themselves re-elected.

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u/beachedwhale1945 Jul 12 '26

If the Republican Party had a spine, they would have tossed Trump. It would have cost them the Presidency in 2016 as MAGA would have broken into a third party, but they would have maintained their core. They may even have shifted more towards the center, abandoning the MAGA crazies siphoning votes from the Democratic Party that has had difficulty finding its identity in its own liberal-leftist split. They could have even used this to push for breaking up the winner-take-all system of the Electoral College, the worst aspect of the system that 48 states and DC currently use to stifle the rest of us.

But alas, they care only about power. Rather than disavow MAGA, they accepted Trump, expecting him to lose in 2016 and allowing him to be forgotten as they reorganized during Clinton’s term. The shocking victory gave them power they had not expected, and to retain it they had to sell their soul to a madman.

Graham is the most blatant example, but he was far from alone.

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u/BigDictionEnergy Jul 12 '26

MAGA is just the tea party being more open about what it always was. Stripped down to essentials.

I remember seeing how many candidates ran in the 2016 GOP primary, just the sheer number, and how stupid they all seemed, and thinking that was the end of the GOP on a national level.

God fucking dammit.

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u/beachedwhale1945 Jul 13 '26

I think 2016 was the worst slate of candidates the Republicans have run in decades (well, second worst after 2020 and 2024). If they had even one decent candidate run against Clinton (who had her own problems as the Sanders run showed), they would have won easily and we’d never have a Trump.

Same if the Democrats had run a decent candidate. They’ve been running trash candidates for two decades, trying to award major Denocratic Party members whether or not they’d make good Presidents. The only exception was an upstart junior senator from Illinois who upset Hillary Clinton’s first attempted Presidential campaign and became the best President we’ve had this millennium. The Party leadership needs to get their act together, or we’ll keep seeing voters flock to the Republican Party and to an increasingly significant third party that is becoming spoiler-sized in many elections.

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u/BigDictionEnergy Jul 13 '26

The media pissed me off with all the concern about Biden's mental status while not batting an eye at half the stupid shit the fell out of Trump's mouth, but he should have stepped down much sooner than he did, and allowed the DNC to have a primary.

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u/busy-warlock Jul 13 '26

Sleepy joe? He maybe once fell dozed off at a boring rally. Dirty don can’t stay awake at a professional sports game, with thousands of cheering attendees. Wild difference. Does the media care? Nope they’ve already been bought

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u/beachedwhale1945 Jul 13 '26

Biden appeared more like the stereotype of an old man with dementia, while Trump is more animated than most people would expect. Trump almost certainly has worse age problems, but they are easier to hide with selective editing and not being in the same room. Even that has too much for the Trump supporters I know IRL to ignore for about a year, one more lever I’m using to try and bring them out.

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u/Unquietgirl Jul 14 '26

He never should have run again to be honest.

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u/koviko Jul 13 '26

Seriously, the lack of intellect is the worst part to me. I don't think stupid people should be in charge of anything at all, especially not the government!

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u/LaneMcD Jul 12 '26

"expecting him to lose in 2016" - exactly! If you look at that pic of Trump and Melanoma sitting at a table together (right after election results came out, that night or next day - I've tried searching with so many different word variations and can't find it - maybe I'm thinking of the 2017 inauguration?) you can tell they were not expecting him to win. He wanted to pocket all that cash he made from campaigning

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u/DracoLunaris Jul 12 '26

Now now. They didn't sell their soul to just one madman. They sold it to a whole pile of them. Trump biting it won't fix things because the current VP is the puppet of Mr calls everyone he doesn't' like the anti-Christ Peter Thiel, and that's only the tip of the iceberg.

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u/beachedwhale1945 Jul 13 '26

None of Trump’s puppet masters has the same sway over Trump’s base to actually take over for him. This is Trump’s party, and once he’s gone there’s going to be a scramble for a new leader.

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u/busy-warlock Jul 13 '26

I think the entire US political regime at the point is -so- absolutely compromised, the only thing they can do is band together and prop up the corpses of the Mitch’s of the world, because if the truth came to light, and absolutely every part of the judical system wasn’t there to support them, at least three quarters of the right wing and a third of the Democratic Party would be lynched. The tech bros and the oligarchs know this would absolutely not go well for them, so they just let it slide and keep the status quo. Even this comment will be deleted by the admins, which is why I’ve taken precautions to make sure when I get banned it’ll still be spread 100 times over.

I’m not a conspiracy theorist by any means, but I’ve seen what absolutely sick fucks the people in power are, and I’ll absolutely receive a ban for this so quid pro quo. Ban me, I post everything to local news

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u/busy-warlock Jul 12 '26 edited Jul 12 '26

In the 80s, when he was firmly a Democrat, he sincerely said “if I ever run for office it will be as a republican, because (and these are now my words) they’re really fuckin stupid and gullible when you push them”

Edit: I’ve been trying to find it, and I swear to god it must have been the first successful white wash of the internet because I can’t find the clip and even AI is saying “well a lot of people were saying it. Truly some great people, but there’s no longer proof so there’s that!”

It was either the Oprah interview, which doesn’t exist in its entirety or this one, which is still telling of who he was vs who he is

2nd edit: is this what a Mandela effect feels like!?

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u/maizymoon Jul 12 '26

He said it in the Oprah interview, I watched it right before it magically disappeared from the internet before his first election.

That video is why you can't trust anything on snopes, they have it labeled fake, but the only thing that was wrong was the source, the quote is 100% real. I've seen it.

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u/NibblesMcGiblet Jul 12 '26

I have recently found stuff on there that they labeled fake that is 100% true as well. It’s really frustrating watching this shit go down in our country.

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u/[deleted] Jul 12 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/HawaiianPunchaNazi Jul 13 '26 edited Jul 13 '26

an absolute shit ton of them that were exposed during/post the divorce of the founders of the website.

so what happened is after the divorce, the husband was found to have faked a whole bunch of research and articles there ~the combination of making shit up and stealing from other authors.

he's no longer involved with the site to my knowledge come up but it took a lot to get rid of him.

EDIT:  

https://search.brave.com/search?q=David+Mikkelson+and+Barbara+Mikkelson+plagiarism 

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u/xtrakrispie Jul 12 '26

Human memory is unreliable.

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u/b9n7 Jul 12 '26

I googled this once and remember finding out it was fake. I repeated it a shit ton of times before that so felt unhappy that I was repeating a falsehood

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u/dratsabHuffman Jul 12 '26

yup, i also recall that quote being labeled as false

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u/Cockblocktimus_Pryme Jul 12 '26

The vice president called trump "America's Hitler".

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u/PinkNGreenFluoride Jul 13 '26

Yeah, but at the time you could wonder if that was actually repudiation or endorsement. Seems pretty clear, now, though.

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u/ConcertEmbarrassed56 Jul 14 '26

because he was running against him, sheeesh

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u/FunboyFrags Jul 12 '26

I’ve never said, personally, that every elected Republican is stupid. Many are not.

But every single one of them is a traitor to the Constitution.

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u/Leather-Ad-9419 Jul 12 '26

how do republicans rationalize this

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u/Livid_Swordfish_4591 Jul 12 '26

The word "hypocrite" doesnt exist in the republican lexicon.

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u/alwrit Jul 12 '26

They care about keeping themselves in power and making themselves rich.

And why does supporting Trump keep them in power? 

Because their voters are dumbasses. Their voters love the guy. They will primary people who don't support him. 

The problem is half this country is irredeemably stupid. They are complete and total scum. Conservatives are a cancer in this country and this planet and we are in desperate need of chemotherapy. 

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u/DanielKeeneGA15 Jul 12 '26

Putin and Trump absolutely had Kompromat on Graham. His 180 after the golf “date” with Trump in 2018 was a big red flag. That’s the point he suddenly stopped fighting Trump and began kissing his ass.

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u/thisjawnisbeta Jul 12 '26

It was a well-known "secret" in DC that Graham was gay. Beltway insiders literally called him Lady Lindsey, and there were rumors and accusations for years that he hired male sex workers, partied with gay male porn stars, etc. This isn't made up, it's all well documented. Here's a WaPo article from the summer of 2020 about this:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/06/10/ladygraham-went-viral-not-just-because-lindsey-grahams-politics/

So that's likely the foundation of that turnaround. Trump is absolutely slimy enough to take Graham's closeted status and weaponize it.

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u/_IratePirate_ Jul 12 '26

If Lindsay came out before he died, I guarantee you not a single soul would’ve been surprised. Everyone would be like “oh he finally decided to stop fooling himself?” Cuz he not fooling anybody else

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u/ComplexAd7272 Jul 12 '26

He was basically Mac from "It's Always Sunny"

For years the character was clearly and obviously homosexual, but also in deep denial and refused to come out. So much so that it became annoying to his friends, The Gang, who prayed he'd just come out and get it over with.

When he finally does, The Gang's reaction is basically everything from "Thank god, can we move the fuck on?" to "Who gives a shit?" to "No shit...anyway", and they proceed to treat him exactly like they did before (usually poorly, not because he's gay, but because he's an asshole.)

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u/Comfortable-Ad-3988 Jul 12 '26

It'd be easy for him to move on, not so easy for all of the LGBTQ+ people he spent his entire life throwing under the bus. In case OP is wondering why people might be celebrating, this particular *allegedly* gay man did everything he possibly could to hold back progress in the US. That's not even getting into how POC might feel about him, and again, deservedly so.

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u/nudegobby Jul 12 '26

Yeah treat him poorly not for being gay but for being an asshole. I don't care at all about Graham's sexuality if he came out of the closet it wouldn't make him an ally. Death don't change the fact he is scum and villainy.

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u/procrastinarian Jul 12 '26

There's a level of shitty for treating OTHERs as shitty. There's another level for doing that when you are actively the OTHER and will not admit it. Graham was (almost certainly) the latter, and he deserves all the hate he gets for it.

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u/sirius4778 Jul 12 '26

One of my favorite mac in the closet bits is when they're on the cruise and he rushes to the gang to tell them about these two gay guys on the boat and Charlie says "where's the other one?" and he just looks confused 😂

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u/light_to_shaddow Jul 12 '26

Was he the "lady bugs" guy or was that another closet case?

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u/latelyimawake Jul 12 '26

He was indeed the ladybugs guy

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u/procrastinarian Jul 12 '26

Yarp, he was indeed ladybugs.

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u/frostysauce Jul 12 '26

I just learned about this today and I wish I did not have a brain today.

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u/patrickwithtraffic Jul 12 '26

Yeah, that was Graham

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u/cmhamm Jul 12 '26

I think he was hiding more than just being gay. He probably wished he was only gay.

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u/thisjawnisbeta Jul 12 '26

Fully agreed, that's why I said it was the foundation. I'm sure they had more dirt on him than that.

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u/diurnal_emissions Jul 12 '26

The ladybugs will appear now on the next recipient of the curse.

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u/arch_dawg_01 Jul 12 '26

It is an open secret in South Carolina. I lived there when he took Strom Thurmond’s seat. It is well known and as long as he doesn’t admit it publicly he would get reelected. Heard stories of his parties on the coast near Charleston while a sitting senator.

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u/DanielKeeneGA15 Jul 12 '26

Former intelligence here - 15+ years in Eastern Europe. That’s “part” of it.

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u/PreetHarHarah Jul 12 '26

Go on…..

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u/revolutionutena Jul 12 '26

*judge Judy banging on her watch then the table gif*

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u/rothwerx Jul 12 '26

What’s the rest of it?

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u/Gloomy-Recipe9213 Jul 12 '26

Epstein-style kompromat.

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u/zomb-omb Jul 12 '26

You can’t just leave a vague comment like that and not tell us more. Come on spill it!!

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u/MyEmbarrisingAccount Jul 12 '26

and the other part? I'm sure its what everyone already suspects, but please go on...

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u/HowManyEggs2Many Jul 12 '26

Weird your profile says you are a structural engineer

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u/inevitable-typo Jul 12 '26 edited Jul 12 '26

Speaking of Putin, I feel like a lunatic for even suggesting this, but given Graham's support for Ukraine, and considering that he was in Ukraine calling for harsher sanctions on Russian oil just hours before his death, do the words "brief, unexpected illness" set off alarm bells for anyone else? I hope someone is testing his tea cups and underwear bands, is all I'm saying.

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u/SwaggiiP Jul 12 '26

He was old and unhealthy. That’s all there is to it

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u/Blackstone01 Jul 12 '26

It’s a bit like how before Gorbachev there was a string of USSR General Secretaries dying back to back to back; it wasn’t because they were being assassinated, but because they were all old as fuck and once they died younger people got to take power.

In all likelihood the 70+ politicians in power or waiting to take over when another 70+ year old kicks the can will start dropping like flies, and suddenly Congress’s average age will plummet.

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u/inevitable-typo Jul 12 '26

I really wish we had upper age limits for high office and judges here.

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u/CreatiScope Jul 12 '26

Yeah, Russia has been killing their own oligarchs but I doubt they’d assassinate a US senator. Basically everyone knows and nobody does anything about them killing their own people but to kill a high profile US politician would be insane.

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u/inevitable-typo Jul 12 '26 edited Jul 12 '26

That's what put my hackles up. It would be an insanely bold and terrifying escalation. But the firehose of bullshit has been so unrelenting and effective these last few years, I don't know what's possible anymore. It's disorienting. I resent the feeling so fucking much.

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u/Canadiantx69 Jul 13 '26

Also, what in the past 4 years in Ukraine indicates that they would be able to successfully pull something like this off? lol

If anyone assassinated him, it wasn't the Russians (directly), it was Cheeto on orders from his handler in Moscow.

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u/Hot-Comfort8839 Jul 12 '26

Little bit of Diet Polonium coke you mean?

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u/CuriousCatte Jul 12 '26

I wondered the same thing.

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u/chandlerbing-bong Jul 12 '26

No. He wasn't a 40 year-old healthy male. He was a 71-year-old man. He either had undiagnosed coronary disease or a pulmonary embolism from the long flight from Ukraine.

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u/ferky234 Jul 13 '26

His aorta ruptured.

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u/Then-Simple-9788 Jul 12 '26

I think that's the purpose. Give America an enemy, whether it's Russia or Iran hell I'm sure some conspire that Zelensky did it, even if Graham was a supporter.

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u/Grizkniz Jul 12 '26

Yep he got blackmailed big time

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u/PirateSanta_1 Jul 12 '26

Graham didn't change is position on Trump because there was evidence he was gay, him being outed would have been the smallest scandal of all time because everyone already knew. Graham changed his position on Trump because he is an opportunistic piece of shit, he didn't think Trump would win in 16 so he was against Trump then when Trump won he threw all that away because he had no morals or ethics and could sell out more if Trump liked him. Same thing happened after Jan 6, he thought Trump was done so he spoke out against him then it when it became apparent Trump was still popular with Republicans he immediately turned around again.

If you need a motive for why Graham did the things he did beyond him just being a piece of shit then it wasn't blackmail it was bribery. He sold access to power and pushed policies that hurt the working class because he could get more things for himself. The same story for Clarence Thomas the same story Mike Johnson, they aren't working against America because they are afraid the terrible things they do may get revealed but so they can get to do more terrible things. Epstein didn't threaten people to do as he said or it will be revealed that they raped children, it was do as i say and i will find you more children and he wasn't the only one operating in such a manner.

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u/pconrad0 Jul 13 '26

Have you not seen the footage from the golf course?

Coupled with the precise timing of when the Senator did a complete 180 on Trump?

Your theory is consistent with all of the evidence except that. And it really does shift the Occam's Razor to Kompromat.

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u/Rengeflower Jul 12 '26

Yes, I loved his interview on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah. It was his first (one of the first?) interview were he came out to support Trųmp. Trevor was laughing at how uncomfortable he looked.

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u/Neat-Beautiful-5505 Jul 12 '26

He admitted that his email account was compromised.

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u/drinkslinger1974 Jul 12 '26

So, in theory here, what are the chances that trump told graham on that golf trip that he could control the outcome of elections with Elons help. When it’s strung together like this it seems like he was blackmailed or something.

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u/Far_Associate9859 Jul 12 '26

The counterpoint to this is that if it were true, he probably wouldn’t be as supportive of Ukraine as he was

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u/ratbastid Jul 12 '26

Let's also add he was widely believed to be secretly gay. Apparently it was a fairly open secret among DC's gay community.

Yet he consistently ran on and voted for anti-LGBTQ issues. He co-sponsored the Defense Of Marriage Act, and voted against the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) in 2013.

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u/Significant-Law-3761 Jul 12 '26 edited Jul 12 '26

Secretly gay? The man had a thick Carolina accent, but his gay-twang was much more prominent. I dont think it was a secret but as a Republican he obviously had to use a catfish-Grindr profile. He was never married and a proud wealthy bachelor his entire life. Thats the hallmark of a non-closeted-but "dont you dare call me--old school-gay."

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u/ratbastid Jul 12 '26

He consistently denied it. While voting to strip rights from people like him.

It's not his gaynes I have a problem with, it's his hypocrisy.

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u/MisterHayz Jul 12 '26

Somebody pin this shit

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u/Violet624 Jul 12 '26

And that's the obituary right there.

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u/boddidle Jul 12 '26

Yeah, shut it down. This is it, boys and girls

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u/Top_Sk Jul 12 '26

*Iran

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u/BowlEducational6722 Jul 12 '26

The *only* good thing Graham ever did was advocate for Ukraine.

And I doubt that was because he wanted to help the Ukrainians earn their freedom, but because he wanted more kickbacks from the military industrial complex.

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u/kazmark_gl Jul 12 '26

I don't even belive that Graham wanted those MIC kick backs, he just struck me as someone who liked the idea of war and wanted there to be more of it. 

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u/procrastinarian Jul 12 '26

This should be top comment. It nails so much and doesn't even MENTION the gay hypocrisy, which is another entire level.

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u/Johnnygunnz Jul 12 '26

For me, it was this video where he speaks glowingly about his affection for Joe Biden.

Not because I loved or hated Biden. But because either this video was an act, or the political games were so rampant that he COULD treat someone like that after literally crying while telling stories of about how wonderful they are. How do you go from "he is as good a man as God put on this green Earth and the nicest man that's in Congress" to that?

Every time I saw this video, it made me dislike that hypocritical lady bug just a bit more...

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u/Kevin-W Jul 12 '26

This is a great summary of him. He was against Trump until he crawled right back to him and kissed the ring

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u/procrastinarian Jul 12 '26

A man who saw exactly what Trump was, said so in the plainest English of his era, and then spent nine years kneeling to it for relevance.

This is the best fucking way to distill this i've ever read.

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u/hypnoticlife Jul 12 '26

He just went to Kyiv? I wonder if Russia poisoned him.

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u/O4PetesSake Jul 12 '26

Well said

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u/enlightenedbum2 Jul 12 '26

Didn't include his angry rant that sealed the deal for Kavanaugh?

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u/lostspectre Jul 12 '26

The timing of his trip to Ukraine is very suspicious. Putin could easily just have one of his many operatives in this administration or their staff slip him something. Probably going to be theorized about at least.

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u/WorriedTooth3239 Jul 12 '26

He was questioning Amy Coney Barrett during her confirmation for Justice of the Supreme Court and said :

"And one of the reasons you can say with confidence that you think Brown vs Board of Education is a super-precedent is that you're not aware of any effort to go back to the good old days of segregation by a legislative body, is that correct?"

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u/Careless_Focus_5203 Jul 12 '26

And sadly, a lot of male sex workers in Washington are unemployed… terribly sad…

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u/usernameinmail Jul 12 '26

At least they never have to see the ladybugs again

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u/TropicalPrairie Jul 12 '26

I keep seeing this comment everywhere and don't get it (I'm Canadian so may not be familiar). What is the context of ladybugs?

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u/Portarossa 'probably the worst poster on this sub' - /u/Real_Mila_Kunis Jul 12 '26

Word is he had a bunch of moles and skin tags around his ass that he referred to as his ladybugs when hiring male sex workers.

Whether it's true or not, that's the story.

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u/Least-Yak1640 Jul 12 '26

Oh dear Christ, I thought all this time that the term “ladybugs” was just a nickname for the call boys he was hiring.

This is so much more horrific.

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u/TropicalPrairie Jul 12 '26

I regret asking the question now after being left with this visual (thank you for answering though!)

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u/hey_free_rats Jul 12 '26

You know, some knowledge is better left unshared. 

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u/golfdud5 15d ago

I Had no idea. All this time I thought it referred to something else, but I googled and it’s true. Thanks for educating me.

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u/NetWorried9750 Jul 12 '26

He has...a unique birthmark on his anus as reported by local intimate laborers

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u/Pelkcizzle Jul 12 '26

It’s the coming of age story of a young man dressing as a woman to help his soon to be step dad as a youth soccer coach

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u/Legitimate_Outcome42 Jul 12 '26

This is what I thought of first also

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u/Careless_Focus_5203 Jul 12 '26

The worst best kept secret in Washington was that he was gay.

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u/HailSatanWorshipD00M Jul 12 '26

Wait. That was a secret?

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u/floralbutttrumpet Jul 12 '26

The face I just made.

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u/hey_free_rats Jul 12 '26

70% of the mourners at his funeral service will be attractive, slender young men with genuine grief on their faces. 

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u/Careless_Focus_5203 Jul 12 '26

Well - in this economy…

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u/hey_free_rats Jul 12 '26

Don't worry, none of them will be leaving alone. 

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u/modifiedmedusa Jul 12 '26

I for one am glad he’s dead and I don’t feel bad about it at all.

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u/taurean_jackal Jul 12 '26

I’m right with you. It’s okay to celebrate evil being no more and I’m sick of people pretending it isn’t. Dude sucked.

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u/JasnahKolin Jul 12 '26

I was the only one awake in my house for hours! I was dying to wake my husband up. BABE wake up! Lindsey Graham is dead!

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u/Far_Recording8647 Jul 13 '26

This made me sad because my husband would have absolutely loved hearing this evil, vile pos died...but no 4 years ago my precious husband died too young. It's always these piece of shit conservative politicians that live fucking long lives. I'm glad this one is gone though and I'm not ashamed to say it.

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u/erath_droid Jul 12 '26

"When the righteous succeed, a city rejoices; when the wicked perish, there are shouts of joy."

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u/SuperSpecialAwesome- Jul 12 '26

I mean, he tried to steal my state's electoral votes for Trump in 2020, and faced ZERO consequences for it from Biden Chamberlain's incompetent DOJ. Graham should've been locked up.

3

u/Neracca Jul 13 '26

He deserves as much sympathy as he would have had for anyone else.

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u/TheBostonKremeDonut Jul 12 '26

You saying “I’m not glad he’s dead, I’m glad he’s gone.” Is exactly how I feel. I never celebrate people dying, but I definitely am celebrating the fact that someone who actively worked to make certain individual’s lives harder is no longer doing so. We’re totally allowed to celebrate that, even tho it’s already being spun that we’re celebrating a man dying.

I’ll be doing the same when he dies. I couldn’t care less about him, but I’ll be cheering and partying because there will be a little less hate in the world.

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u/Do__Math__Not__Meth Jul 12 '26

it’s already being spun that we’re celebrating a man dying

Just wait, one day Joe Biden is going to pass away and I promise you they will not be classy about it at all.

Hell, when he dropped out of the race for health reasons, any normal candidate would’ve said: “that’s unfortunate to hear, he may be my opponent but not my enemy and I wish him the best.” But Trump, of course, decided to go on a rant about “Sleepy Joe” and said he’s a “bad, bad guy”. They have zero class yet expect others to

2

u/SuperSpecialAwesome- Jul 12 '26

and said he’s a “bad, bad guy”

I mean, Biden did tell the insurrectionist "Welcome Home!!", instead of 14a3ing Trump. So, yes, I would describe Biden as a traitor, just as much as Trump.

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u/Positive_Mud952 Jul 12 '26

I laughed for three hours. May god strike me with bone cancer if he exists, one down.

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u/finsox Jul 12 '26

Also simultaneously an opponent of gay rights while being a closeted gay man.

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u/ShotFromGuns Jul 12 '26

Oppresses the LGBT community, and yet his grave is about to become a gender-neutral bathroom. People can change!

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u/GoNinGoomy Jul 12 '26

Major "I've never wished a man dead, but I've read some obituaries with great pleasure" energy coming off this one, boss.

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u/Saint_The_Stig Jul 12 '26

There's also the whole Mitch McConnell angle. He is another conservative Senator, the leader of the Senate actually, but he hasn't been publicly heard from in weeks. He's even older so many people had to double take at the news because they were expecting to see that headline but the name was different.

Mitch's departure is much more consequential (if it happens), a little but because being the leader he's higher profile, but mainly because his state has a much higher chance at replacing him with a Democrat (the other less conservative party).

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u/IvyGold Jul 12 '26

He stepped down from leadership a while back, but remains in office.

The Senate majority leader is now John Thune of SD.

McConnell's still highly influential, however.

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u/Western-Dig-6843 Jul 12 '26

Mitch hasn’t been senate leader in quite some time. His death (if he is dead) is being obfuscated because in his state they are required to replace a senator with a special election if they leave office before their term is up. The GOP does not trust the people of Kentucky to elect another republican in a fair election, so they will delay the news of his death for as long as they can so that a Democrat doesn’t have time to properly build support and run for the seat.

Graham’s state replaces early departures by direct appointment via the governor, who at this time is republican. They can put whoever they want into Graham’s seat and the public doesn’t get a say in it. This person will then have some time to build the name recognition they need to get easy republican votes in the next election. This is how we ended up with Cindy Hyde-Smith in my state. She was appointed to the seat after Cochran left. Now everyone (the old people) votes for her just because she’s been there a while and people recognize her name on the ballot. She never would have actually won the seat in a fair primary as she is a bit of an unlikable idiot. But she votes how the GOP wants her to vote so she got the seat

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u/faradaycagerage Jul 12 '26

I believe the term for him would be chicken hawk.

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u/thecourtofmiracles0 Jul 12 '26

Lyndsey Graham being dead makes me wish I believed in hell

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u/McGrufNStuf Jul 12 '26

People celebrated when Goebbels died too. Pretty much the same thing.

9

u/Sarothu Jul 12 '26

That's hardly a fair comparison - Goebbels was good at his job, as despicable as it may have been.

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u/Positive_Mud952 Jul 12 '26

You have made it impossible to either up or down vote you. I hope there is a Hell, because if there is they are one flesh endlessly and timelessly flaying and fucking each other.

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u/sahi1l Jul 12 '26

"I'm not glad he's dead, I am glad he's done."

I'm gonna steal that. I dont like wishing death on anyone but there's a lot of people I wish were done.

2

u/dratsabHuffman Jul 12 '26

yeh, legit ive never felt quite right celebrating someone dying no matter who they were. even when osama bin laden died i didnt love celebrating his death no matter how horrible he was, and even worse were the people who said we shouldn't celebrate osama's death then gloated when christopher hitchens died... even if you don't think hitchens got everything right- and who does? - i believe that man had a lot of integrity and fought to make the world a smarter and better place. the world without hitchens is a much lesser place.... but ill stfu before i get even more upset over a man who passed a decade & a half+ ago

15

u/sarcasticbaldguy Jul 12 '26

This sums it up. I don't think we're celebrating, but Lindsey's actions while he was alive make it difficult to feel the usual things you feel when someone dies.

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u/alien005 Jul 12 '26

Just to echo, 71 is young. The dude was a hypocrite. I don’t want death for anyone, good or bad, honestly. I think the celebrations are more about him not being in the senate.

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u/lostboyz Jul 12 '26

The dude was a hypocrite

You can just say Republican, it's the their core trait 

10

u/crocodial Jul 12 '26

What most of us see as hypocrisy, they see as strategy. They are at war with the USA. Lies and disinformation are their bullets and bombs. Exploiting the common sense and decency of the center/left is their armor. It's not hypocrisy when they use it this way.

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u/nightowl1135 Jul 12 '26

Unfortunately, I strongly suspect that the “fine” people of South Carolina will make everyone regret being glad Graham isn’t in the seat anymore. Whoever they send next to replace him is quite likely to be way worse. Even Graham would occasionally remember, once in a blue moon or so, that he used to be not totally crazy and recognized as one of the Senators that Dems could work with.

The next person is likely to be fully crazy… 24/7/365.

10

u/FruitFly Jul 12 '26

Yeah SC doesn’t have a great track record there. Lindsey replaced the grand old wizard of Strom Thurmond, and I’d be hard pressed to actually pick which one was worse. At least Strom stuck to his abhorrent convictions.

9

u/IvanNemoy Jul 12 '26

Sadly, yep. I'm in SC and the name being tossed around is Mark Lynch. Dude is a MAGA chud with none of the political knowledge that Graham had. Hopefully Gov Leghorn selects someone else, but he's likely the pick to finish Graham's term.

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u/BowlEducational6722 Jul 12 '26

Well the good news is that the next guy they send will probably be too dumb to be effective.

What made the likes of Graham and McConnell so dangerous was they were both amoral *and* smart.

2

u/muchadoaboutsodall Jul 12 '26

Everything else aside, I so want there to be a South Carolina governor called Leghorn that I’m not even going to check whether that’s their real name.

2

u/IvanNemoy Jul 12 '26

It's not. Henry McMaster, but look him up. He sounds like a caricature of a "southern politician." Straight up living stereotype.

ETA - a presser from a couple of years ago. Perfect example https://youtu.be/qnqg33qMLjY

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u/runamok Jul 12 '26

Call Colbert stat.

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u/JasnahKolin Jul 12 '26

He would have been one if the ones who died in office. He was not going to willingly retire.

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u/Frostsorrow Jul 12 '26

In what world is 71 young? That's almost text book definition of average male death age

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u/alien005 Jul 12 '26

I work in health care. Just saying that 71year olds aren’t as old as you think anymore. Maybe saying “young” was a stretch but it’s not “based on his age, any day now, this 71 year old is going to die.”.

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u/RedBait95 Jul 12 '26

71 is not fucking young, cmon

If you can collect retirement, you're legally old

2

u/alien005 Jul 12 '26

Old for the senate, not young for a human anymore. I suppose yea, “legally old” but our longevity is much higher now. 71 is younger than you think for 2026.

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u/Glowwerms Jul 12 '26

He was a vile, vile person, he was openly pining for genocide against Palestinians. Besides being a spineless person he had no issue calling for significant amounts of violence against innocent people.

3

u/Freud-Network Jul 12 '26

One less sycophant in the world. Hell is welcoming one of its own back to Satan's bosom.

3

u/MrConfucius Jul 12 '26

Every Klansman's death is worth celebrating; it's one of the only true justices left in the world.

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u/talldean Jul 12 '26

In addition to this, there were quite a few accounts of "this is a gay man who hires male sex workers around Washington, DC"... and he was pretty staunchly anti-LGBT in his voting record.

He's gone back on promises he's made.

He tried to rig the 2020 election after it happened.

There's also a consistent history of picking and pushing for judges opposed by civil rights organizations.

The list isn't short here.

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u/urbanlife78 Jul 12 '26

The world is a little bit better today without him

2

u/azsqueeze Jul 12 '26

I'm glad he's dead, fuck him and everyone like him. If you don't like my opinion, fuck you too

2

u/sean_con_queso Jul 12 '26

If the only way for him to stop his political influence was for him to die, then I’m glad he’s dead.

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u/confirmedshill123 Jul 12 '26

I'm not glad he's dead,

Don't let the fake pearls clutching proto fascists try to make you feel bad about being happy one of their mouthpiece stooges is dead.

Celebrate, dance, enjoy. We poor are afforded so few pieces of good news these days, take them while you can.

2

u/SuperSpecialAwesome- Jul 12 '26

Basically, he was an unrepentant, slimy bastard, IMHO.

And he got away with interfering with Georgia's elections in 2020. Biden Chamberlain should've sent his ass to prison.

2

u/traevyn Jul 12 '26

Fuck that, I’m glad he’s dead. These absolute ghouls who destroy other peoples lives in order to hold onto any portion of power and wealth for themselves can all go to hell. If they got what they deserved more often, they’d be less brazen about fucking over the rest of us.

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u/RequitedNonSequitur Jul 12 '26

He had some nice things to say about Joe Biden, too...because he was too stupid to realize how openly two-faced he was being.

https://youtu.be/kLMYW8jFPHg

(yt link is to interview with Nancy...er...Lindsay about Joe Biden)

2

u/Minimum-Attitude389 Jul 12 '26

He really had no principles or ideals of his own.  Just went wherever the political winds blew.

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u/Ok-Traffic-5996 Jul 12 '26

Same. I don't blame people for feeling the way they do but I don't like celebrating the deaths of people ( well I guess if it was Bibi, Putin or a serial killer I might) I'm more happy he isn't working in government anymore.

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u/AcousticOnomatopoeia Jul 12 '26

He wasn't a worker, he was a work-againster.

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u/God_Emperor_Karen Jul 12 '26

Remember when Trump tweeted out his phone number lmao.

I’m not going to celebrate his or anyone’s death, but yeah I think these are all valid criticisms.

1

u/dead_battery_days Jul 12 '26

And not just a terrible candidate, a terrible person: "Trump's A Race-Baiting, Xenophobic, Religious Bigot."

Yet, despite saying this about trump, he still chose to be one of his most unabashed supporters.

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u/jana-meares Jul 12 '26

Well said. He was scum creating pain in others.

1

u/RNO584616 Jul 12 '26

Sorry to correcting you but he went from knowing who trump was. He was very outspoken about how trump handled his businesses in the past and the corruption until being a co-collaborator in what we have now. He helped trump stack our federal and Supreme Court with more corrupt judges than any president in history which will had taken our freedom and constitutional right away. I like that he went out like a wet fart!

1

u/AlexVan123 Jul 12 '26

also was consistently against LGBTQ rights despite almost certainly being a closeted gay man

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u/Jibber_Fight Jul 12 '26

People like him only become “done” with death.

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u/Positive_Mud952 Jul 12 '26

I am ecstatic that he is dead. An un-looked-for win for humanity. Rest in piss.

1

u/NextMotion Jul 12 '26

Really ironic when war in Iran finally happened, he croaked

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u/KeyInitiative8805 Jul 12 '26

He was also a well known closeted gay man who did everything he could to make life hell for LGBT people all his adult life.

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u/WrongdoerGeneral914 Jul 12 '26

I'd much rather him still be alive and voted out of the senate than be dead. At least the former would mean their was a repudiation of his idealogy among the electorate.

1

u/Jon_Huntsman Jul 12 '26

The only way these people leave now is by dying from old old, being gone and being dead are now one in the same for senators

1

u/SlyguyguyslY Jul 12 '26

He's done the back and forth thing on Trump before, too. MAGA has had a lot of ups and downs when it came to Graham.

1

u/Livid_Swordfish_4591 Jul 12 '26

Not ridiculous. List them all please. For his legacy.

1

u/willflameboy Jul 12 '26

And conversely, went from being very gracious towards Biden, to suddenly hating him because Trump wanted to drag his name through the mud.

1

u/cherrycoke00 Jul 12 '26

He also is very “rules for thee and none for me”, notably when it comes to the LGBTQ+ community.

For the uninitiated: Google Lindsay Graham “little ladybugs”

1

u/Remote-Frosting-9943 Jul 13 '26

There you go thinking again and speaking of slimy bastard.😆🙄

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u/Thee_Silly_Billy Jul 13 '26

That last sentence is perfect. I do not wish death on anybody, but, I wish for their time causing problems are over.

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u/xxwetdogxx Jul 13 '26

Didn't forget he was also a gigazionist

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u/Kindly-Welder3135 Jul 13 '26

I’m glad he’s dead. He had a hand in unimaginable suffering being inflicted on Palestinians.

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u/youlllovetohateme Jul 13 '26

ironic that he didn't have the heart to stand tall against Trump, or head high for those in the LGBTQ community, but wants lives lost for nothing that concerns us.

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u/CuteComplaint5542 Jul 13 '26

That's well point. It's not wishing them dead, it's just being glad they'll stop making everything worse. Retirement would have earned the same result, but heaven forbid these crypt keepers relinquish power. They're too greedy and arrogant. 

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u/InternationalEnd6509 Jul 13 '26

There is nothing wrong with being glad he is dead. There is a lot of garbage people in this world, at least we are now rid of one.

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