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Graham backs Iran strikes
Unreleased documentary footage reviewed by The Wall Street Journal shows late U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham spending years privately pressing President Donald Trump and foreign leaders to overthrow Iran’s regime, at times advocating military action beyond what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was prepared to support.
In a March 4 exchange captured by filmmaker Alex Holder, Graham planned to travel to Florida to persuade Trump to bring the U.S. into Israel’s campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon while the Iran war was underway, but Netanyahu urged him to keep the focus on Iran.
Netanyahu told Graham, “We’re concentrating right now on Iran,” and Graham replied, “That’s actually good counsel.”
The footage also shows Graham celebrating after U.S. strikes on Iran began in February, telling the documentary crew, “Look what we’ve done here. I almost cried,” according to The Jerusalem Post.
Netanyahu, Sullivan, and Kushner
The footage reviewed by The Wall Street Journal depicts Netanyahu reining in Graham’s push to widen the Iran war, with Netanyahu warning that if Hezbollah is told the campaign will go all the way, “they have no reason not to go all the way against us.”
Graham told Jake Sullivan, who served as national security adviser under then-president Joe Biden, “I can’t do it with Jared, and I can’t do it with Witkoff. They’re just too conflicted. It’s gotta be Rubio,” according to Ynetnews.
A White House official rejected Graham’s criticism of Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, saying, “Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are excellent dealmakers whose results speak for themselves,” as quoted by Ynetnews.
The recordings also show Graham predicting in March that the Iran war could produce significant political instability inside the country within three to four weeks, a forecast The Wall Street Journal said proved inaccurate as fighting continued.
War aims and political fallout
The documentary footage portrays Graham as a central advocate of U.S. intervention against Iran, including his public push for American military action before the United States and Israel launched strikes on Iran on February 28, as described by The Jerusalem Post.
In the final weeks of his life, Holder said Graham frequently appeared exhausted while still speaking of completing major objectives, including ending Iran’s regime and establishing diplomatic ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia, according to The Jerusalem Post.
Graham later expressed frustration that members of the Trump administration and other Republicans were not doing enough to publicly defend the war, and in what became his final filmed interview at a bagel shop in Columbia, South Carolina, he criticized Trump for signing a preliminary agreement with Iran in June, saying, “He’s letting this thing slip away.”
The Hill reported that Graham also compared Trump and Netanyahu to Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill, and it said he predicted on March 4 that the Iranian regime would “start losing control of some cities” within three to four weeks, which did not occur.
