US senate returns to Washington after Lindsey Graham’s sudden death

Senate Republicans will return to Washington on Monday with an uncertain agenda after the sudden death of Lindsey Graham, a committee chairman and key player who served as a crucial ally of Donald Trump.

Prominent Republican Mr Graham, 71, died on Saturday evening after suffering a tear in his aorta, according to a statement from his office on Sunday.

The shocking news comes as another prominent senator, former Republican leader Mitch McConnell, remains in hospital, where he has been treated for almost a month.

Mr McConnell broke a weeks-long silence about his health on Sunday evening, saying that he was still recovering after suffering from pneumonia and falling in his home.

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The continued absence of Mr McConnell and the surprise death of the South Carolina senator Mr Graham have shaken Republicans who were already at odds with Mr Trump and stalled on several priorities as they return from a two-week recess.

And the reduced Republican numbers in the 53-47 Senate are sure to add confusion to what was already expected to be a chaotic and difficult few months before the November mid-term elections.

Despite consolidated power in Washington, Republicans have been unable to get much done as the senate, house and White House have disagreed on legislative priorities and as Mr Trump has criticised Senate Republicans, in particular, for not passing his legislation to require proof of citizenship for voters.

Mr Graham, who was one of Mr Trump’s closest friends in the senate, often served as a pivotal intermediary.

“He was a great – like a gauge, a temperature gauge of the senate,” Mr Trump said of Mr Graham on NBC’s Meet The Press on Sunday morning, noting he had talked to Mr Graham on Saturday. “He could go in and get something approved. He would just get people on his side.”

The senate left Washington two weeks ago after a rough few weeks for Republicans. Mr Trump blocked the senate from confirming one of his own nominees, asked them to fund parts of his White House ballroom project despite opposition and forced them to defend the Iran war even as they questioned the strategy and endgame.

He also refused to sign a bipartisan, election-year housing bill that had the support of large bipartisan majorities in both chambers, arguing that they should pass his bill to require proof of citizenship, the SAVE America Act, instead.

The bill became law on Friday at midnight after he declined to sign it but did not veto it.

The alliance between Mr Trump and senate Republicans has also been weakened after the president endorsed the opponents of two Republican incumbent senators who had been reliable votes, Texas senator John Cornyn and Louisiana senator Bill Cassidy.

Mr Cassidy challenged Mr Trump directly on the Iran war in a Capitol meeting between Mr Trump and Republicans just before they left town that did not go well.

Republicans return to a number of important agenda items, including the confirmation of Mr Trump’s choice for attorney general, Todd Blanche, and the confirmation of Jay Clayton, who Mr Trump selected to be director of national intelligence and later temporarily blocked.

They also must find a way to navigate Democratic opposition and Mr Trump’s continued ire to keep the government open and prevent a government shutdown, once again. Mr Graham was a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, as is Mr McConnell.

Mr Graham also sat on the Judiciary Committee that will consider Mr Blanche’s nomination and is the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, which has been under pressure from House Republicans and Mr Trump to move a budget package with increased defence spending for Iran.

There is also bipartisan legislation to move forward on a package of Russia sanctions that Mr Graham and Democratic senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut had announced on Friday after an agreement with the Trump administration.

Senate leaders have not yet announced how they will honour Mr Graham, who died after a tear in the inner wall of the aorta, called an aortic dissection, related to hardening of Mr Graham’s arteries, according to his office. An official cause of death will be disclosed after toxicological and microscopic testing, his office said.

Mr Graham, a prominent South Carolina Republican and former Air Force lawyer who served in congress for more than three decades, had just returned from a trip to Ukraine.

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Mr McConnell’s announcement revealed for the first time that a fall led to him being taken to hospital, breaking the silence about his condition after weeks of mounting speculation about his health.

The Kentucky Republican, who is retiring in January, said in a statement that he was “briefly unconscious” around the time he was first taken to the hospital in June and has undergone a battery of tests to try and determine what led to his fall.

He said he was also treated for mild pneumonia and has been moved to a rehabilitation facility.

“My doctors have confirmed that I didn’t break any bones or suffer a concussion. I didn’t have a heart attack or a stroke. I don’t have any tumours or haemorrhages,” Mr McConnell said, adding that he is now “regaining my strength”.

He said he cannot return to the senate “quite yet.”

Mr McConnell explained the four-week silence about his condition by saying that “folks of my generation often hesitate to share the vulnerability that comes with growing older”.

And he added: “Even in the public eye, I feel that same instinct — I can’t help it.”