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Amid the country’s ongoing Mitch McConnell health watch, as the Kentucky Republican begins his second month in the hospital, news broke Sunday that his colleague, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, had died.
Graham passed away Saturday night after a probable aortic tear, according to reports. He had represented South Carolina in the Senate since 2003.
The internet had already spent days hard at work mocking CNN commentator Scott Jennings's alleged phone call with McConnell from his hospital bed (the call prompted CNN to distance itself from Jennings, emphasizing that he is not a journalist), but when news of Graham’s death was announced, people across social media immediately pivoted to jokes and memes at Graham’s expense.
Those jokes included burning both Graham and McConnell in one fell swoop by saying things like Graham’s death “kinda feels like we got a free appetizer because our entrees were taking too long" have become popular, as are memes making fun of the long-standing rumors that Graham was a closeted gay man because of his ”confirmed bachelor” status. Graham consistently said he wasn’t gay throughout his long career, but as Advocate columnist John Casey wrote after his death, “He always denied it, but I always snickered when he did.”
Related: Lindsey Graham, Trump ally who opposed LGBTQ+ rights and consistently denied being gay, dies at 71
The jokes aimed at Graham have not been this biting since the supposed nickname “Lady G” went viral after adult film performer Sean Harding alleged that Graham had hired male sex workers. The allegation was never substantiated.
Republicans have called the reaction callous, but many LGBTQ+ people point to Graham’s record as the reason there is little sympathy for him. Over the course of his three-decade-long career, Graham opposed marriage equality at nearly every turn, including voting for the Defense of Marriage Act and supporting a proposed constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman. He voted against repealing “don’t ask, don’t tell” and against legislation that would have prohibited workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. The record is extensive.
Critics also regarded him as a glaring political hypocrite. Graham spent 2016 warning that Donald Trump would ruin the Republican Party, only to become one of the president’s most loyal defenders.
Trump himself has celebrated the death of people he did not like. When filmmaker Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele, were found dead in December 2025, Trump used the occasion to attack Reiner as “tortured and struggling” and afflicted with “Trump Derangement Syndrome.”
In March, after former FBI Director and special counsel Robert Mueller, who investigated Trump's 2016 campaign and potential ties to Russia, died, Trump wrote, “Good, I’m glad he’s dead.
He added, "He can no longer hurt innocent people!”
Graham’s own political record is now fueling the internet’s unsparing response to his death.
Related: Lonely Lindsey Graham died tethered to the man who humiliated him
