The late Sen. Lindsey Graham was known as a champion of American military power, strong global alliances, conservative jurisprudence and more.
Cryptocurrency regulation? Not so much.
So when President Donald Trump suggested in a Truth Social post Monday that the Senate should pass a long-brewing crypto bill in “honor of Senator Lindsey Graham,” it struck a false note to many lawmakers. It also underscored how quickly many in Washington are moving after the Republican senator’s death Saturday to claim his mantle for their own purposes.
Many of Graham’s surviving colleagues instead rallied around a proposal they believe would better honor the four-term South Carolina legend: a bipartisan sanctions bill targeting Russia that Graham had been pushing — and had won White House support for — in the days before he died.
But it remains unclear if that legislation truly has legs, especially with Trump infatuated with other priorities that have little to do with Graham’s signature issues. That has opened up room for the competing attempts to seize on his legacy.
In addition to the crypto bill, Trump stoked a competing suggestion — that the contentious GOP elections bill known as the SAVE America Act could be passed in Graham’s memory — by saying he had spoken to the senator about that legislation just hours before his death.
“He thought we were going to get it passed,” Trump said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” — sparking other Republicans, including Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri and Mike Lee of Utah, to redouble their calls for a bill that Graham supported but never played a lead role in advocating.
Lee said during an X broadcast Monday night that he had met with Trump at the Oval Office earlier in the day. In that conversation, Lee said, Trump’s final conversation with Graham about the elections bill came up.
“I imagine a number of my colleagues will see that as an emotionally compelling reason, one of many, to get this done,” Lee said. Skeptics, he added, should “reconsider in light of the fact that this was on Lindsey Graham’s mind just moments before he died and we ought to figure out a way to carry forward his legacy by getting this thing passed.”
To many senators, however, the bill slapping sanction on buyers of Russian oil and gas is a no-brainer. Not only was Graham known as one of the chamber’s fiercest Russia hawks, with decades of trans-Atlantic security experience, he had just returned from the NATO summit in Turkey and a visit to Ukraine when he died.
“The most obvious and logical way [to honor Graham] would be the sanctions bill, because it’s his bill,” Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) said in an interview Monday. “You’re not making anything up. He practically died trying to get it passed. … Anything else becomes kind of political trickery in my mind.”
The problem is, the sanctions bill still faces serious doubts among some Republicans. Graham at multiple points over the past year believed he had talked Trump into backing the measure, only for it to be put on ice as Trump tried to negotiate with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Though prior versions of the bill had broad bipartisan support, small pockets of skepticism could still force the Senate to eat up weeks of floor time in order to get it across the finish line.
And then there’s the matter of what Trump will do. While Graham claimed presidential support and a White House official confirmed that Monday, Trump himself was not so direct when asked separately Monday if he would support it.
“We’re talking about that,” he told reporters.
The president was nowhere as indirect in regards to the crypto bill, saying in his social media post that “the U.S. Senate should pass the Clarity Act” in memory of Graham, whom he called “a big supporter” of the legislation.
While Graham had voted for other cryptocurrency bills, he was not considered a major industry ally and in the last Congress had co-introduced a tough bipartisan regulatory bill aimed at combatting money laundering.
As for the SAVE America Act — which has been a key source of tension between Trump and Senate Republicans — Graham had cosponsored it and called for its passage. But he also cast doubt on whether the Senate would eliminate the 60-vote filibuster threshold to pass it.
Instead, Graham before his death was floating trying to get pieces of the bill passed through the filibuster-skirting budget reconciliation process — a process he partly controlled as Senate Budget Committee chair.
Fellow senators agreed that crypto and SAVE America were Trump’s obsessions — not Graham’s.
“There are only two things on the president’s mind. … No. 1, the SAVE Act, and No. 2, based on the tweet I saw this morning, the crypto bill,” said Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.). “I want to do the crypto bill, but Lindsey cared about the sanctions bill.”
Asked if he saw a connection between Graham and the cryptocurrency legislation, Cramer said, “This place is full of circumstances where you get too cute by half.”
Honoring Graham with the sanctions bill, he added, would be “obvious.”
While some senators have floated other fitting ideas, like naming the annual Pentagon policy bill after Graham, advancing the sanctions legislation has the most momentum — especially after the idea was endorsed by top leaders and a bipartisan slew of Graham’s colleagues Monday.
“It would be a great tribute and legacy for Lindsey,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters Monday, while acknowledging leaders were still “assessing” if the bill had a path forward.
Minority Leader Chuck Schumer also urged the Senate to quickly pass the sanctions legislation in honor of Graham.
“I know if Senator Graham were here in this chamber today, he would also join me in urging the Senate to support Ukraine and strengthen sanctions on Russia,” Schumer said on the floor, predicting it would “pass overwhelmingly and help our allies in Ukraine” if Thune moved forward with it.
But some Republicans believe Trump will have to publicly bear-hug the bill to get it across the finish line.
“I know some people at the White House have said they support it … but they don’t count,” Kennedy said. “No offense to anybody, but they don’t count. I haven’t yet heard the president stand up and say, ‘We need to sanction the hell out of Russia, and let’s get going.’”
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