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Graham’s Iran war push
Newly released documentary footage shows the late Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) praising President Donald Trump’s decision to launch a large-scale attack on Iran and comparing Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill.
The footage, captured by filmmaker Alex Holder after spending hundreds of hours with Graham dating back to 2023, includes Graham saying, “We’ve done it,” and adding, “I almost cried. I mean, how long have we been pushing this?”
Graham, who died earlier this month after suffering an aortic dissection, also told Holder that he spoke to Trump that morning and said Trump told him, “Best thing I’ve ever done.”
In the same footage, Graham predicted on March 4 that the Iranian regime would “start losing control of some cities” within three to four weeks, a forecast that did not occur, according to the accounts in the sources.
The documentary excerpts also place Graham’s comments in the early days of the war, after Trump and Netanyahu began strikes on Iran, with Al Jazeera describing the conflict as beginning after the US-Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28.
Trump recalls Graham
US President Donald Trump, in a Tuesday phone-in appearance on Fox News’ “Fox and Friends,” recalled Lindsey Graham’s “warmongering ways” ahead of Graham’s funeral and said, “He was very much a hawk, as you would say, on Iran.”
Trump added, “Lindsey liked war, to be honest with you,” and said, “He’s never seen a war that he didn’t like,” as newly unreleased video circulated about Graham’s reaction to the Iran onslaught.
Al Jazeera’s account of the footage says Graham credited himself with persuading Trump to join Israel in going to war against Iran and “almost cried” with joy when the conflict began.
In the same Al Jazeera excerpt, Graham tells Netanyahu on March 4 that he planned to try to persuade Trump to join Israel in bombing Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, while Netanyahu responds, “We’re concentrating right now on Iran.”
The sources also describe Graham as a close confidant of Trump and Netanyahu, with both attending his funeral on Tuesday, as the documentary footage frames his role in pushing for confrontation.
Lebanon offer and fallout
The newly released footage depicts Graham offering Netanyahu US military involvement in Lebanon, with Graham telling Netanyahu, “I’m going to meet with the president this weekend … I’m gonna try to get him to join with y’all in Lebanon,” according to the account in Middle East Eye.
“Senator Lindsey Graham credited himself with persuading United States President Donald Trump to join Israel in going to war against Iran, “almost cried” with joy when the conflict began, and offered to lobby Trump on behalf of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to attack Lebanon too, newly released footage has shown”
Netanyahu’s reply in the footage is that “We’re concentrating right now on Iran,” and he adds that if Israel tells Hezbollah it is “going all the way” it would “threaten them,” but if Israel “actually do it,” “then they have no reason not to go all the way against us.”
Al Jazeera also describes Graham’s earlier comments to the documentary crew after watching Trump on television answering questions from reporters on March 3 for the first time since the US-Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28.
In that Al Jazeera excerpt, Graham says, “I talked to Trump this morning. Oh, he’s jacked! He said ‘best thing I’ve ever done’. He loves blowing stuff up,” and he compares Trump and Netanyahu to Roosevelt and Churchill.
The sources frame the immediate stakes around the war’s continuation and the diplomatic track, with Al Jazeera noting Graham’s concern in June about a preliminary ceasefire agreement Trump signed with Iran and saying, “He’s letting this thing slip away.”
