An End to the McConnell-Graham Era? Good Riddance!

By Jessie Seigel / July 20, 2026

Republican Senators Mitch McConnell and Lindsey Graham

Of Senator Lindsey Graham…

I come to bury Graham, not to praise him. The evil he has done lives on. The good will be interred with his bones.

In death, Lindsey Graham has been lauded by both Republicans and Democrats—some possibly following that adage: never speak ill of the dead. I am not one who adheres to that line but, rather, to truth regardless of circumstance.

The truth is that some of Lindsey Graham’s early life was tough, and he met those moments with grace and heart. His parents died 15 months apart—his mother of cancer, his father of a heart attack. So, at 22 years of age, and still in college, Graham took on the guardianship of his sister, Darline, who was only 13 years old. He cared for her with great love and devotion. In 2015, while Graham was running for president, Darline told the New York Times, "He's kind of like a brother, a father and a mother rolled into one."

Graham’s devotion to his sister was laudable. However, what good is a man who loves his family but doesn’t give a damn about anybody else’s?  

Graham opposed President Obama’s healthcare legislation and played a leading role in efforts to repeal it. Clearly, so long as he and his sister had their health care, others’ suffering was of no importance to him.

More recently, the man who so loved his sister was also fine with seeing other people and their children interned indefinitely without charge in hellish detention camps. Long before that, he suggested that the 14^th Amendment to the Constitution should be amended to eliminate birthright citizenship; that children born in the United States to illegal immigrants should be held illegal as well.

And how shallow are a man’s professed principles when he will unceremoniously dump them to slavishly kiss the backside of a felon who has no respect at all for him.

Over the recent course of Graham’s career, his debasing turn-abouts went far beyond the ruthless self-interest that Republicans have made the tenets of their political religion.

When, in Trump's first run for president, Trump called for a ban on Muslims entering the United States, Graham accurately called him "a race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot.” At that time, Graham declared, "I'd rather lose without Donald Trump than try to win with him."

When Trump also brayed that a judge was biased because of his Mexican heritage, Graham told the Times, "There'll come a time when the love of country will trump hatred of Hillary Clinton.” (Clinton was, that year, the Democratic candidate for president.)

But lo and behold, only three years later, when asked in a Times interview how he became a prominent Trump supporter, Graham replied that he was trying “to be relevant.” He added: “…in our business, you’re not defined by the 80 percent agreement. You’re defined by the 20 percent that the base might object to.”

Conclusion: for Lindsey Graham, love of country be damned. Petty pursuit of influence and power turned out to be his love. And for him, apparently, the corrupt use to which that power was put was irrelevant.

Love of democracy--our nation's heart--be damned as well.

After it was clear that Joe Biden had won the 2020 presidential election, Graham said that Trump "should not concede" because "if Republicans don't challenge and change the U.S. election system, there will never be another Republican president elected again."

Graham then donated $500,000 to Trump's bogus election lawsuits, maintaining that Republican state legislators should invalidate election results by appointing presidential electors who would vote for Trump in the electoral college. 

Naturally, Graham voted against conviction of Trump for his role in the January 6, 2021, insurrection, and against creating a commission to investigate that attack.

This Trump lackey, whose change with the political winds demonstrated his lack of humanity or even self-respect, should not be surprised by the hot reception he receives in his afterlife.

Of Senator Mitch McConnell…

As for Mitch McConnell, where is he now? And in what condition? He’s been absent from the Senate for more than a month, raising conjecture on whether he may be in a coma or perhaps dead. It has also been speculated that the Republicans are trying out their own version of Weekend at Bernie’s to prevent Kentucky’s Democratic governor from appointing a senator in McConnell’s place.

Many have questioned the claims of Majority Senate Leader John Thune and Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, both Republicans, that each had a separate 20-minute conversation with Mitch.

When the speculation threatened to reach a fever pitch, photos of the man in his hospital room with his wife, Elaine Chao, were released. There was also a statement purportedly by McConnell that he had simply fallen and was recovering fine. Of course, that statement could quite reasonably have been written by anyone on his staff. Thus, it proves nothing about his condition one way or another. A five-minute phone call by Mitch to the Kentucky governor or a statement by his doctors would provide a more convincing proof of life and condition.

But never mind all that hubbub. Whether now or later, when McConnell goes, he’ll probably be greeted by Satan as his favorite acolyte. Unlike Lindsey, no one could accuse Mitch of being anybody’s lackey. He is definitely his own man. His malevolent role in the effort to destroy democracy can be rivaled by none save perhaps the corrupt Supreme Court Six.

Whether as Majority or Minority leader, McConnell has been a master manipulator of the Senate.

He led opposition to stricter campaign finance laws, culminating in the Supreme Court decision Citizens United v. FEC, which allowed corporations to be defined as people and their financial contributions to campaigns as “speech.”

McConnell made regular use of the filibuster to obstruct President Obama’s agenda. But when it would benefit his own agenda—confirmation of the right-wing justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett--he orchestrated a rule to end filibuster for Supreme Court nominations.

Treating consistency as the hobgoblin of Democratic minds, Mitch prevented Obama’s March 2016 Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland, from even being considered. McConnell’s grounds? --That it was a presidential election year. Of course, he found no contradiction in ushering through the confirmation of Trump’s nominee, Amy Coney Barrett, one week before the 2020 presidential election.

A genius in the art of hypocrisy, McConnell claimed to support impeachment of Trump for inciting the January 6 insurrection, but deliberately delayed the Senate trial until after Biden officially took office. Then McConnell voted to acquit, arguing that it was unconstitutional to convict a president (Trump) who was no longer in office. This, after he—McConnell—ensured that Trump would no longer be in office.

Adding insult to injury, within minutes after the acquittal that McConnell engineered, he had the temerity to make a 20-minute speech on the Senate floor decrying Trump as guilty of everything the House impeachment managers had stated.

And of course, McConnell later voted against creation of an independent commission to investigate the attack.  

During Trump’s current term, McConnell has voted against three of Trump’s cabinet nominees: Pete Hegseth, Secretary of Defense; Tulsi Gabbard, former Director of National Intelligence; and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Secretary of Health and Human Services. This should not be mistaken for an effort at redemption. Even if it were, it would be far too little, far too late. It would take a heck of a lot more for McConnell to redeem himself for the chaos he inflicted on the nation by his anti-impeachment manipulations alone.  

Whenever you’re ready, Mitch, Lindsey will be waiting for you down below. And the devil may fear you’ll be after his job.