US Senator Graham offered military support for Israeli war on Lebanon new footage shows
Just one day before his funeral is set to take place in Washington, DC, video footage has emerged showing a gleeful Senator Lindsey Graham rejoicing at the launch of the US-Israeli war on Iran, and even single-handedly offering US military involvement to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for his war on Lebanon.
The clips are from British filmmaker Alex Holder, who has been following Graham for the last three years for a documentary on his relationship with President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Holder appears to have been granted access to staff meetings on Capitol Hill as well as discussions Graham had with national and foreign leaders, including the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.
"I almost cried. How long have we been pushing this?" Graham is seen asking members of his office in one clip, as he watched Trump give remarks to the press five days into the launch of the war on Iran.
"[Trump] loves blowing stuff up," Graham said.
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"There are a lot of people inside that didn't want to do it. So I've had my challenges. President Trump, when he gets into the zone, he listens, asks good questions. You know, no tweeting... He's been a great wartime president," he added.
"I said last last night that Trump and Bibi are like Roosevelt and Churchill. I mean, they're the right two guys to to confront this evil."
In another clip, Graham is again seen in his office, having dialed Netanyahu and put him on speakerphone.
"I'm just so impressed. Glad to be your friend," he began the call.
"I'm going to meet with the president this weekend. I'm going down to Doral," he said, referencing Trump's golf club in Florida.
"I'm going to try to get him to join with y'all in Lebanon to maybe fly some with you. Would you like that?" Graham asked, in a stunning unilateral offer for US military intervention in Lebanon, where Israel had significantly escalated its air and ground assault along with its attacks on Iran.
"Yeah, I I get that. I think I think you have a point, but I've been thinking about the other side of it for a second. We're concentrating right now on Iran," Netanyahu responded.
"If we tell Hezbollah that we're going all the way, we're threatening them. But if we actually do it, okay, then they have no reason not to go all the way against us, okay. That's not our interest."
Graham replied that he only "put it out there as an idea", and that he appreciated Netanyahu's "good counsel".
A third clip from the documentary showed Graham on the phone while in the passenger seat of a moving vehicle, speaking to former White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan.
"To be honest with you, I think about three to four weeks we should have them in a spot where they start losing control of some cities," Graham said on the call in reference to Iran.
"And what we're trying to do is just get a few cities to fall in the next month. Get the Arabs more openly involved tomorrow, or by the end of the week, and just have almost irreversible momentum."
Five months in, that momentum still has not materialised.
'Conflicted'
The Wall Street Journal detailed some conversations from clips not yet publicly available, including further discussion with Sullivan in which Graham complains that Trump's chief negotiators - his peace envoy Steve Witkoff, and his son-in-law Jared Kushner - are simply not equipped to handle talks on Gaza or Iran.
“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," Graham reportedly said.
Holder told the Wall Street Journal that Graham was closer to Saudi Arabia's Mohamed Bin Salman than any other US official, and that Graham was also treated like a king whenever he went to Israel to meet with Netanyahu or the Mossad.
The senator is said to have frequently complained that many people inside the administration and surrounding Trump are against the war on Iran and angling for a deal, which complicated Graham's endeavours.
“Very few people are out selling this war from the administration. I’m shocked,” he reportedly said.
But he also relished how much media attention he was getting since the war - which he had been demanding for decades - kicked off.
“We could do a media show every two seconds," Graham told the documentary crew.
Forever interventionist
Long one of the loudest voices on US foreign policy and a loyal ally to Trump, Graham died suddenly at the age of 71 from an aortic dissection earlier this month.
First elected to the Senate in 2002, Graham regularly courted intense international criticism for his pro-war rhetoric and interventionist foreign policy.
He staunchly backed Israel in the US Congress and called for increased military assistance to Tel Aviv alongside increased aid for illegal settlements.
Netanyahu characterised him as a close friend of Israel, while President Isaac Herzog declared Graham's support for the country had been unwavering.
Throughout Israel's genocidal war in Gaza, Graham repeatedly defended Israeli military actions and opposed efforts to restrict US support for Israel.
His comments frequently drew criticism from Palestinian rights advocates, human rights groups and Muslim civil rights organisations.
In July 2024, Graham described Palestinians in Gaza as "the most radicalized population on the planet who are taught to hate Jews from birth" in a social media post that sparked widespread condemnation.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations responded by saying that he was promoting racist stereotypes about Palestinians, calling his comments "hateful and absurd".
Graham also drew flak for suggesting that Israel should consider measures comparable to those used by the United States against Japan during World War Two, remarks that opponents described as inflammatory.
In 2019, during a visit to the occupied Golan Heights, Graham called Israel's security and prosperity vital to US national security and advocated recognition of Israeli control over the territory.
In March, he blamed Saudi Arabia for refusing to join the US-Israeli war against Iran and warned of potential "consequences" for countries that declined to support military action against Tehran.
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