'Have You Called 911?' Tommy Tubberville Shares Details on Lindsey Graham's Tragic Final Moments
Sen. Lindsey Graham’s scheduler had to know her boss was in trouble.
The staffer was at a restaurant with an aide to Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville on Saturday when Graham called her cell phone complaining of chest pains, Tuberville told reporters on Monday.
When she asked if he’d called 911, Graham responded, “No … I called you,” Tuberville said.
Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) says his former staffer called 911 on behalf of Sen. Lindsey Graham after Graham said he was experiencing chest pains.
“By the time she got there, 911 had knocked the door down,” Tuberville said. “They were working on him.” pic.twitter.com/1qZqn5obDh
— CBS News (@CBSNews) July 13, 2026
Emergency dispatchers received a call to respond to Graham’s Washington address about 8:30 p.m., CNN reported. Tuberville said the staffer who called 911 was a Graham scheduler who used to work in Tuberville’s office.
“By the time she got there, 911 had knocked the door down, and they were working on him,” Tuberville said.
By then, it was too late.
According to the Washington, D.C., Medical Examiner’s Office, Graham, 71, died of a heart condition known as aortic dissection — essentially a tear in the all-important aorta, the artery that carries blood from the heart.
The South Carolina senator had just returned from a trip to Ukraine, CNN reported, and had been speaking with President Donald Trump earlier in the evening.
Essentially, he was working until the end.
“Lindsey basically worked himself to death,” Tuberville said. “Most of us have families. He didn’t have any family, and if we had a couple of days off, he went to that airport. He went somewhere to try to work out something for our country.”
And he scoffed at the idea that there was anything but natural causes involved in Graham’s death.
“No, there’s no conspiracy here,” he said.
However, in a Fox News interview on Monday, Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley said it’s “only wise and smart to look at every angle here,” according to The Associated Press.
“I absolutely think there should be a full toxicology report, autopsy, the whole thing. I mean, nobody had been a greater advocate of taking on Putin than Lindsey Graham. Nobody had been tougher on the Iranians over time than Lindsey. He had a lot of enemies in the world. So I wouldn’t I wouldn’t rule anything out.
“I don’t want to be a conspiracy theorist. And, you know, I hope that none of that is true. But the truth is that we’ve lost a good man. The Senate’s lost a good man who was doing a lot of good work. And I think we owe it to his constituents and the American people to get the truth.”
A full autopsy is pending, according to CNN.
On Monday, South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster announced that Graham’s sister, Darline Graham Nordone, would serve the remainder of Graham’s fifth term in the Senate. (A move that was heartily endorsed beforehand by Trump.)
The state will conduct a special primary election Aug. 11 to choose a Republican candidate to run in the November general election.
The winner of that primary will face Democratic pediatrician Annie Andrews, who won her party’s nomination for the race in June.
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