The Behind-The-Scenes Lindsey Graham Story A Democrat Just Shared

Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) took a moment on Sunday to reflect on his friendship with his late colleague, Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC).

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Graham’s office had announced his passing overnight, stating that his death had been the result of a “brief and sudden illness” — and later reports confirmed that EMTs had been called to his Capitol Hill residence to assist with a man in his 70s who was suffering from cardiac arrest.

While many of Graham’s fellow senators shared their thoughts via social media, Booker spoke directly to the camera to tell a behind-the-scenes story about his colleague and friend.

WATCH:

I am stunned by Senator Graham’s passing, and thinking back this morning about some of the work we did together. My prayers are with his family and all who cherished him. Rest in Peace. pic.twitter.com/cPUXDQxk1B

— Cory Booker (@CoryBooker) July 12, 2026

Booker dove right in with a story about his first real interaction with Graham, saying that when he was elected to the Senate, his first priority was to get something done on mass incarceration — and when he talked to colleagues like Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL), they all told him that Graham was the guy he wanted on board.

The New Jersey senator said that when he approached Graham, he was initially told to come back later — Graham was in the middle of a contested primary against an opponent he described as “bat-sh*t crazy,” and needed to get that behind him before he could do the next thing. So Booker waited, and Graham won his primary — and then Booker came back to see him.

“I laughed, and came back to him after the primary,” Booker said. “And true to his word, he rolled up his sleeves and we went to work. And thanks to him and Dick Durbin and some other Senate heroes, our bill became The First Step Act — after years, two presidents, two Congresses, it became law.”

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Booker went on to describe the scene as the bill was going through final revisions, when he was trying to get one last provision squeezed in about “children being put in solitary confinement” — and a White House official assured him that it was not going to happen. The official then proceeded to get Graham on the phone, thinking that the South Carolina senator would give a similar response.

“So he gets the White House operator to connect Lindsey Graham on the phone, and Lindsey Graham listens for maybe a hot second and then interrupts the guy,” Booker explained. “And says, ‘Are you kidding me? We need Cory Booker to get this bill done. We can’t do it without him, give him what he wants.’ And it’s in the bill.”

Booker quoted one of the White House negotiators who told him early on in the process that Graham was the political equivalent of “an unguided missile.”

“That, God, you never knew which way he was going to go — whether he would come back and hit you — but when he was aligned, when he would be in the right place at the right time, man, he could get things done that other people couldn’t and bring a lot of light and new possibilities to the efforts.”

“I am stunned at Lindsey Graham’s death,” Booker concluded. “But I pray that he is reunited with his friend [the late Arizona Republican senator] John McCain, that they both are experiencing God’s love, grace, mercy, and forgiveness … I will miss my — perhaps most unexpected — friend in the Senate, someone with whom I got some good things done.”

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