The president Donald Trump dismissed the notion that Russia poisoned Senator Lindsey Graham, who passed away on Saturday, July 12, at the age of 71.
However, her words have not been able to quell the storm of speculation surrounding a death laden with geopolitical symbolism.
According to a report from Newsweek, Trump responded to a direct question from a television host by stating that Graham had "deeply rooted health issues that are not easy to find."
The question that put Trump at the center of the debate
On Monday, July 14, Newsmax host Greg Kelly asked Trump a straightforward question:
"The Russians have a habit of poisoning people they don't like, and Graham once called for Putin to be eliminated. Does he have any suspicions or concerns? Does he think we know the whole story about his death?"
The president's response was calculated: “To address the conspiracy theory, I would love to say yes, but I think he had some issues.”
Trump added that these issues were "deeply rooted" and hard to detect.
He pointed out that Graham's father died at a similar age and described what happened as a catastrophic internal failure: a part of the senator's body "literally exploded."
The following day, at the White House, Trump was more emphatic when referring to the FBI's involvement.
“I believe the FBI is wasting its time if it is doing that,” he said, dismissing any connection between the death and a criminal act.
The Last Hours of Graham and His Grim Joke
The senator had returned on Friday, July 10th, from Kiev, where he met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and announced an agreement with the White House to promote a devastating sanctions package against Russia, which included a 500% tariff on countries purchasing Russian oil.
That same Saturday night, Graham spoke on the phone with Trump to inform him about the trip. The president recalled that the senator "sounded a bit tired."
Shortly after hanging up, Graham confessed to a confidant that he wasn't feeling well, and when urged to seek medical attention, he replied that he would do so on Sunday, after his scheduled appearance on Meet the Press on NBC.
According to what that confidant told Axios, Graham joked: "I can't die now. I still have to approve the sanctions against Russia, sort out the situation with Iran, and achieve normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia."
He died hours later, in what his office described as a "brief and sudden illness."
The growing rumors about a possible poisoning
The combination of factors—the trip to Kyiv, the announcement of sanctions, the sudden death, and Graham's history with Russia—has sparked speculation among political figures and on social media.
Bill Browder, the financier and anti-corruption activist behind the Magnitsky Act, was one of the most explicit: "Russians are experts in administering poisons that appear to be heart attacks."
"All tests must be conducted immediately to rule out foul play. I have seen enough suspicious deaths related to Russia to know that this is the only course of action," he wrote on X.
The Republican senator John Cornyn from Texas publicly called for the release of the toxicological report. "Given where he was and the things he was advocating for, I think we simply need to resolve all those questions by looking at what the toxicological reports show," he stated on Monday, July 14.
Graham's history with Moscow is central to understanding the intensity of the suspicions.
In 2022, the senator publicly asked if there was "a Brute in Russia" and stated that "the only way this ends is for someone in Russia to take him out", referring to Putin. In May 2023, before Zelensky, he declared, "Russians are dying... it's the best money we've ever spent." Those statements led Russia to issue a search warrant against him and, in February 2024, to include him on its list of terrorists and extremists.
The investigation and the official cause of death
The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner of the District of Columbia has preliminarily determined that Graham died from an aortic dissection caused by atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, a condition that can be fatal within minutes if left untreated.
However, the death certificate remains in "pending" status. "The death certificate will be PENDING until all toxicological and microscopic tests are completed," specified the office of the medical examiner, as quoted by The Hill.
The FBI director, Kash Patel, confirmed on Sunday, July 13, that the bureau was "assisting local authorities," without providing further details on the extent of its involvement.
Trump ordered flags to be flown at half-mast across the country until Saturday, July 18, in honor of the senator, whom he described as "a dear friend of mine and a truly exceptional man."
The final toxicology results will be the key to either closing -or further igniting- one of the most intense political controversies of the year in Washington.
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