Lindsey Graham, the senator from South Carolina, has died at the age of 71. The news broke late Sunday evening, and the immediate reaction in Washington was unusually raw. The Sunday shows were dominated by remembrances from people speaking on only a few hours’ notice about the loss of a friend, rather than the usual carefully constructed political messaging, and to someone who watches these things all the time, it was absolutely notable.
According to Graham’s office, the preliminary examination from the D.C. medical examiner found that he died of an aortic dissection due to atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. The death certificate remains pending until toxicology and microscopic testing are finalized. There will inevitably be conspiracy theories, but Graham had high blood pressure, his father died at around the same age from a heart attack, and that now appears to be what happened here.
