One of U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham’s final public appearances was at a Baptist church in his home state of South Carolina.
On Saturday, July 4, Graham appeared at First Baptist Church of Columbia, S.C.., for the Southern Baptist congregation’s “Carolina Celebration of Liberty.” That was just a few days before the Republican senator flew to Ukraine, where he made his final public appearance before returning to Washington, D.C., where he died of an apparent ruptured aorta Saturday evening, July 11.
Graham was a Southern Baptist and member of Corinth Baptist Church in Seneca, S.C.
At the July 4 musical extravaganza, Graham cracked joke after joke and received a warm greeting, included laughter and extended applause.
Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina speaks at the Faith and Freedom Coalition during their annual “Road To Majority Policy Conference” at the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center June 17, 2022, in Nashville,. (Photo by Seth Herald/Getty Images)
“I started (today) in Greenville at the First Presbyterian Church,” he said. “I guess I was predestined to be there. I don’t know why I’m here other than I love coming here. This is like the highlight of the year for me to come to this service with my family to remind me what our country is about through Baptists who can sing and dance. And to those who say Baptists cannot sing and dance, come here; you will be proven wrong.”
He spoke of the Founding Fathers and their and disagreement with King George of England that led to the America Revolution.
“The only thing (they) had in common apparently is (they) didn’t want to be governed by a king, and after that nobody could agree on much else,” he said. “250 years later it is still the same way, right? Speaking of kings, President Trump said hello. I told him I was coming here. He said tell everybody in Columbia at the First Baptist Church I love them. And I can’t say anything else he told me because we’re in church.”
Graham also gave some of his customary remarks about protecting America from tyranny.
“Abraham Lincoln said that no foreign power will ever take us down as a nation. They won’t take one drink out of the Ohio. He said it better than that but that’s what he said. And Ronald Reagan said something that stuck with me to this day: America is one generation away from losing its freedom. Do you understand that? So here’s my commitment to you, to the people of South Carolina and to the people of America and the world: America is not going to lose her freedom on our watch.”
Within less than 24 hours of Graham’s death, President Donald Trump said he has someone in mind to fill Graham’ seat for the remainder of the year — even though presidents have no say in filling Senate vacancies. That job goes solely to the governor of the state with the vacant seat.
In recent years, Graham became an outspoken supporter of Trump, once Trump was re-elected. That was not always his stance, however.
- In December 2015, Graham called Trump a “race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot.”
- In February 2016 he said of Trump: “I think he’s a kook. I think he’s crazy.”
- In May 2016 he said: “If we nominate Trump, we will get destroyed … and we will deserve it.”
He also flip-flopped on other issues related to Trump and MAGA:
- Although U.S. Sen. John McCain of Arizona was one of Graham’s best friends, Graham did not criticize Trump for mocking McCain and calling him weak for being captured as a POW.
- In October 2020, as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Graham railroaded Amy Coney Barrett onto the Supreme Court eight days before a presidential election, despite having twice earlier declared such late-in-term vacancies should be left for the incoming president.
- After January 6, 2021, Graham expressed disdain for the Trump-inspired rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol but soon thereafter was back kowtowing to Trump.
One area in which Graham was consistent was his support for Ukraine and his criticism of Russia. He died one day after making a public appearance with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv.
Across his 23-year-career in the Senate, Graham was a staunch social conservative and supported aggressive military intervention.
Graham consistently opposed abortion access. In 2022, he introduced a bill to ban abortion nationwide after 15 weeks of pregnancy.
He voted against same-sex marriage protections, including voting against the Respect for Marriage Act in 2022 but he maintained that marriage policy should be left entirely to individual states to decide.
Graham was one of five Southern Baptists serving in the current U.S. Senate.
Tim Tate (screencap)
On Sunday, July 12, Tim Tate, pastor of Graham’s home church in Seneca, led the congregation in a time of prayer for the late senator.
“One thing that stands really out to me is his love for America,” Tate said. “I was blessed to be able to talk to him and know him and be friends with him, and one thing he always wanted to talk about was his country. … The last conversation I had with him just a couple of weeks ago ended in prayer, as I always ended our conversations with prayer. We just prayed for wisdom and knowledge and discernment.”
In 2022, during a Senate confirmation hearing for Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, Graham said he personally attended church about three times a year.
In February 2022, Graham said he didn’t expect on Judgment Day to be asked to give an account for why he voted to acquit in the impeachment of President Donald Trump.
“When I go to meet God at the pearly gates I don’t think he’s going to ask me, ‘Why didn’t you convict Trump?’” Graham said on the Brian Kilmeade Show on Fox News Radio.