Senator Lindsey Graham Dies Suddenly at 71

What's up, everybody? It's Bretzky, and America is turning 250. And I can't think of a better way to celebrate that than playing on an American-owned social casino, SpinQuest.com. With all of your favorite games, live craps, bubble craps, live blackjack, there's no better place to play for free and win real cash prizes. SpinQuest.com. SpenQuest is a free-to-play social casino. Avoid where prohibited. Visit SpenQuest.com for more details. Bite into a stacked sandwich made with hero bread. And the only thing you'll think is... Delicious! You won't think it has up to 19 grams protein, 11 to 32 grams of fiber, or just 0 to 5 grams net carbs, but it does. Hero Bread. No compromises, just loaves, buns, tortillas, bagels, and noodles, packed with flavor. Right now, get 10% off at hero.co with code iHeart. That's hr-o.coe.coe. All figures per serving of Hero Bread, see Nutrition Facts on Hero.co. A burst pipe. A dead water heater. The AC calling it quits. Who do you call? HomeServe is an easy way to handle unexpected home repairs. With plans covering stuff, basic homeowners insurance usually won't. Instead of scrambling for a contractor, you make one call to get the repair process started. Join the millions of customers who trust homeserve right now. Go to homeserve.com slash podcast for 50% less your first year. That's homeserv.com slash podcast. Savings compared to renewal price void in Florida. Bubba Wallace here from 2311 racing. On the track, my car's look is everything. But today, I'm talking about more than just paint schemes. I'm talking about my favorite games at Chumba Casino. Check out exclusives like Stampede Fury and my own King Crock Theory. It's just as wild as my car looked in Texas. With over 200 games and new ones weekly, play for free at chumbacasino.com. Let's Chumba. Sponsored by Chumba Casino. No purchase necessary. VGW Group, voidware prohibited by law, 21 plus, terms and conditions apply. The Ryan Gorman Show podcast, presented by Farah and Farah, accident attorneys, Tampa. Now let's get to another top story. We're covering this morning. South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham died Saturday evening at the age of 71. His office announced the death early yesterday morning, initially describing it as the result. of a brief and sudden illness. Graham died at his Washington, D.C. residence shortly after returning from an overseas trip. Preliminary examination found he died from an aortic dissection caused by arterioschlorotic cardiovascular disease, basically a tear. formed in his main artery, which had apparently been weakened by heart disease. The death certificate remains pending, while a toxicology report is conducted. The final cause and manner of death will be updated after those results, but federal law enforcement officials...

told Fox News yesterday there was no indication of foul play. President Trump appeared on Meet the Press yesterday morning and said this about his conversation with Graham just hours before he died. He sounded a little tired, but perfect, but a little bit tired. I had a right to be. And he was a worker. He was really a worker. So Graham was actually going to be on Meet the Press yesterday morning. Apparently, he wasn't feeling well. And there was a push by those close to him to go and get checked out. And he said he was going to do that, but after his appearance on the show. So he didn't want to go before his appearance or potentially cancel his appearance to get looked at. And then, of course, He passed away. This came as a shocker. I mean, this is not, you know, Diane Feinstein or, you know. Right, somebody who we know, or Mitch McConnell. Right, right. Somebody who we know is sick. Yeah, I was shocked when I saw the news. It was, it was pretty late. And I had just gotten, you know, back from that event that we went to. And I'm getting in bed and I scroll Facebook. And I'm like, oh my gosh, Lindsey Graham. Yeah, it was like shocking. The age of 71, I mean, appeared pretty. Healthy, certainly energetic. I mean, it was all over TV. Oh, yeah, absolutely. He had just been, he had just gone on that trip. Yeah, we're going to have a lot on this throughout the morning, including the reaction among public officials, politicians who are already angling for his Senate seat, some of the conspiracy theories that are out there with the FBI director put on social media. I mean, I'm sorry, and we'll talk about. Kash Patel's post on X a bit later. President Trump's got to move on from Kash Patel. She's just irresponsible in that position. There's already going to be a lot of conspiracy theories, especially because he had just come back from that trip and then to put out that post, like alluding to that there could be something nefarious going on. Basically, he said the FBI is offering any resources that are needed, which leads to the question, well, why would FBI resources be needed here? He had a heart attack. That was it. Yeah, right, right. Good morning, Reed. Morning, Ryan. Good morning, Dana. Well, as you might expect, we're getting reaction from across the political spectrum to the death of Lindsey Graham. As far as Florida officials are concerned, a lot of them issued statements over the weekend. Maria Elvira Salazar, I am deeply set. by the passing of Senator Lindsey Graham. Lindsay was a true patriot and a devoted public servants who dedicated decades of his life to our country. Carlos Jimenez says, deeply saddened by the passing of Senator Lindsey Graham. He leaves behind a legacy of dedicated public service, a commitment to national security, and an unwavering fight for freedom. Lourdes and I are praying for his family and loved ones. Senator Ashley Moody, my family, and I mourn the sudden passing of U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham. There are people in this world who have the ability to change the air in a room through wit, humor, well-placed arguments, reason, or impassioned appeals. Lindsey Graham had the uncanny ability to pull them. Rick Scott, Anne and I are shocked and heartbroken to learn of the passing of Senator Lindsey Graham. We ask that you join us, keeping his family, friends, and team in your prayers during this time. Lindsay was a good friend and dedicated public servant for the people.

of South Carolina. So there you get an idea pretty much all along the political spectrum as far as the passing of Lindsey Graham. Very unexpected. It was. Did not see that coming over the weekend. No, I thought. I think just like everyone else, it was going to be Mitch McConnell, who was going to end up having passed away, not Lindsey Graham. And Lindsey Graham is a really fascinating political figure. He served his country. There's no question he loved America. There were two things to me that stood out about him. His views on foreign policy, and we've talked about it before, there wasn't a war that he wasn't in favor of, especially since the war on terror, since the September 11th attacks. And then also... how he positioned himself politically. He was somebody who Democrats had a relationship with. He was more old school in that sense, where he would talk to those cross the aisle, work with them on certain things, despite being a Republican and a pretty partisan one. But then it was the relationship that he built with John McCain. And then with President Trump that always really stood out to me because you would have thought that someone who was that close to John McCain would have wanted nothing to do. With Donald Trump, especially after what Trump said about McCain. But with Lindsey Graham, it was about having a voice in the room to influence those who were in powerful positions. That's what he wanted the most. And I think that's why you saw him, you know. play the game the way he he played it and i i likened it to a few minutes ago like a romara on a shark yeah i heard that was that was good that was good that was Lindsey Graham he wanted to be right there he he wasn't the shark but he wanted to be right there uh attached to whoever was powerful in that moment uh and and so It was, I think, a fascinating political career. I think some of the people who, you know, are really trashing him. And he's getting hit from both the left and the right, which is very interesting, mainly over his foreign policy views. Look, I think that's part of the overall legacy, but it's not the entirety.

of the legacy. Yeah, I think with that kind of stuff, though, it really did make a lot of people upset that he would just go on TV and say, we did Ewo Jima, you know, like thinking that we should go into Iran and just wipe them out with no regard for the American lives that he was going to be putting at risk. And I think that really doesn't say well with a lot of people. No, I saw a lot of very harsh comments on social media this past weekend. Yeah, and of course, you can weigh in, pull up your iHeart radio app, W-I-O-D or WFLA, whichever station you listen to us on. You'll see that microphone. It's bright red. You hit that, and you can record 30 seconds of your thoughts on Lindsey Graham's life and legacy. Now, let's bring in our national correspondent Rory O'Neill, whose report is brought to you by Mark Spain real estate. So Rory. I think everyone was on Mitch McConnell death watch when all of a sudden were hit with this news that it was Lindsey Graham who passed away. Certainly came out of nowhere, right? It did. I think I read the headline, thought, what you thought. It's like, oh, no, poor Mitch. Wait, what? And then said to go back and read it again. 71 years old, we believe it was an aortic dissection. Of course, we're still going to take some time for the full autopsy to get out there. But as much as it's a sad and tragic thing for friends and family, there are practical concerns as well. Getting him replaced. Who will that person be? How quickly can someone be named to fill that seat? Nancy Mace has raised her hand. Of course she has. She wants to replace Lindsey Graham. In fact, she put out a pose on X saying just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in and she's got that clip from The Godfather. Awful movie The Godfather 3, although that is a pretty good scene with Al Pacino. I mean, if Lindsey Graham hadn't. passed away and was just in the hospital and in like intensive care. I mean, Nancy Mace would have went to the hospital and pulled the plug. I mean, she is with a pillow. Yeah, she would put a pillow right over his face and finish the job. She is that intent on getting back into. Congress. There was also a report that maybe the Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent. Scott Bessent, he owns a home in South Carolina still, and some thought that maybe he'd kicked around this idea of perhaps taking that seat and running. Again, we're setting up, there are two things. One, the governor can appoint a replacement. Is that replacement just going to be a caretaker? Some have said maybe Senator Graham's sister could just fill the seat for the few months, or do you appoint someone who you want to get the gig? Because don't forget, now we're going to start with a special election. Maybe August 11th is the first primary vote. If there's no majority winner, the runoff would be August 25th. And because it's South Carolina, let's face it, whoever wins that Republican primary is going to win a race. So it could come down to whether or not there's a caretaker or an actual candidate appointed for the post. And then what President Trump wants there to. Exactly.

Right. A lot of people say that it was Graham who drew President Trump into these conflicts in Venezuela, maybe Cuba and, you know, obviously Iran and was trying to make him more of a hawk on Ukraine as well when the president had campaigned on, you know, why are we fighting these foreign wars? So the general consensus is that maybe Graham was saying, all right, I'll get you your Save Act and I'll get you a few other things, but I need you to be more aggressive on these foreign affairs issues. All right. Our national correspondent, Rory O'Neill with us this morning. Rory, thanks so much. Just real quick, Dana, on that point. Look, Trump's got a lot of people in his ear. He's got Lindsey Graham. He's got Marco Rubio. He's got JD Vance. Trump. is the ultimate decider. He does what he wants to do. He does what he wants to do. He does what he wants to do. So Lindsey Graham wasn't making him attack Iran or anything like that. Now, Lindsey Graham was certainly happy about it when it happened, but he wasn't the reason that Trump decided to do something like that. And I think you could take issue. I think you made the point earlier, and it's correct. You can make an argument for Lindsey Graham's foreign policy views, for and against. It was sometimes how he expressed his views that I think really turned off a lot of Americans. Right, because the way he would say things was as if there was no regard for the, you know, for the service people that were going to be putting their lives at risk. And likely a lot of them dying. Like when he made that Ewo-Gio a comment, I'm pretty sure we covered that because it was so outrageous. It was. But I think we have to balance that with, you know, the fact that in D.C. He was somebody who Democrats and he would reach across the aisle, they could talk to. There was a lot of things that he did that, you know, weren't foreign policy related that were good. And then he was also one of those politicians who, you know, I don't think he was ever going away. He was never given up. Oh, no, absolutely not. No way. He died at the age of 71. He was not like what we're seeing with Mitch McConnell. But I have no doubt that would have been Lindsey Graham one day because he was never going away. He never would have given it up, right? Yeah, no, he was one of those politicians for life. Listen live to the Ryan Gorman show on IHeart Radio every weekday morning on WIOD and Miami. WFLA and Tampa. Presented by Vera and Farah. Accident Attorneys Tampa. Hey, everybody, Lady Luck here, and we're celebrating America's 250th birthday. Now, all summer long, I'm going to be celebrating by playing on SpinQuest.com, which is an American-owned social casino. It obviously features over a thousand slot games and live blackjack, live craps, live bubble craps. Head on over to SpinQuest.com. Get yourself a $30 coin pack for just 10 bucks.

SpenQuest is a free-to-play social casino. Avoid where prohibited. Visit SpenQuest.com for more details. This podcast is sponsored by Jace Medical. For 250 years, Americans have valued freedom, independence, and the ability to take care of ourselves and our families. This fourth, Jace Medical is celebrating with a special anniversary offer. Get a Jace case for just $250. The Jace case is a physician curated emergency supply of critical antibiotics and medications designed to help you prepare for travel disruptions, natural disasters, supply shortages, unexpected emergencies, and more. The freedom to act begins with preparedness. Visit jace.com. That's J-A-S-E.com and claim your $250 J-D-S-Case today through July 31st. How do you want to spend your day? At Brightview Senior Living communities, you decide and will take care of the rest. Pamper yourself at the salon and pursue your creative passions. Toast with your friends at Happy Hour and savor chef prepared meals. Close out the day with a concert just down the hall from your apartment. Or simply relax. The choice is yours. Enjoy the comforts of home and the security of award-winning care. Discover the possibilities at Brightview Senior Living.com. What's up, fools? Main of it, Jay Uso here from the WWE. When it's just me between matches, it's day one-ish. And that means it's Chumba Time. With hundreds of casino-style games and new titles arriving weekly, there's always something fresh to try at Chumba Casino. The daily boots make it even more fun. And have me, about to get them, all during my downtime. Ready for a fun way to chill out and enjoy a few minutes for yourself. Let's Chamba! No purchase necessary. VGW Group, voidware prohibited by law, CTs and Cs, 21 Plus, sponsored by Chumba Casino.