Jim Vandehei on Lindsey Graham: He Was Never Boring and Was Wickedly Smart

EXCERPT:

VANDEHEI: “He wanted to be making a difference. And at the very end, as you guys talked about at the top of the show, he was talking to our reporters, talking to other people daily, because he was trying to do three things. His father had died young. His mother had died young. I think he felt this sense of timing. He wanted to figure out Ukraine, wanted to help figure out Iran, and was working really hard to his final hours on trying to get a deal between Israel and the Saudis. And in his mind, he would rationalize a relationship with Trump that he could move Trump on the margins in different directions on topics that he cared about. He was very much an internationalist. He was very much about using US military might to try to shape the world in our image, in a pro-democracy image. And he felt like he was having success doing that with Donald Trump. Very fair critique that how the hell do you go from saying this guy is a threat to humanity to he's one of the greatest presidents ever, and I think that will be a big part of his legacy, but he was never boring and never outside of the loop. And by the way, he was wickedly smart,”