WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he is aware of conspiracy theories circulating about the sudden death of his friend and ally, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., but declared “the FBI is wasting their time” investigating the matter.
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The president was responding to reporters in the Oval Office who asked him why FBI agents were at Graham’s home just blocks from the Capitol on Monday after the 71-year-old senator’s death on Saturday night.
“I don’t see a lot of evil there,” Trump said. “I know there’s all sorts of conspiracy theories going along, and I think the FBI is wasting their time if they’re doing that.”
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Trump: FBI is wasting time investigating Sen. Graham’s death
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Washington, D.C.’s chief medical examiner said a preliminary examination of Graham found “aortic dissection due to arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease,” or a rupture of his aorta due to a hardening of his arteries.
Authorities are still awaiting the results of toxicology and other testing.
Trump, who was meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi and dealing with a crisis in the Strait of Hormuz, appeared up to speed on the Graham situation. The senator was one of the president’s closest allies on Capitol Hill, and Trump was one of the last people to speak to Graham, in a phone call on the night he died.
The president said he had reviewed all of the medical reports related to Graham’s death and even received a briefing from his White House doctors about what had happened. Trump said he was aware that Graham’s father had also died of heart complications at a relatively young age.
“They say it’s almost undetectable. You can detect it if you have a very bad back. That’s a sign. It’s a bad sign,” Trump said. “So if anybody has a bad back … that’s one of the primary signs. And he would tell me he had a bad back, but little did anyone realize it was for that. So, when that bursts, which it did, it bursts.”
NBC News has asked the FBI for comment about Trump’s latest remarks.
On Monday night on Newsmax, Trump was also asked about the conspiracy theories swirling about Graham and whether Russia could have poisoned him. A key defender of both Ukraine and Israel, Graham had been pushing for tougher sanctions on Russian President Vladimir Putin and Moscow, and had just met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv the day before he died.
“Just to answer the conspiracy theory, I’d love to say yes, but I think he— he had some problems,” Trump told Newsmax. “And his father died just about at the same age. … I’m a believer in the racehorse theory, you know, if you have problems, you have problems. And he had some problems that were a little bit deep-seated and not easy to find.”
On Monday afternoon, NBC News observed nearly 20 FBI and other federal agents gathered outside Graham’s rowhouse on Capitol Hill. Multiple FBI agents entered the home and were seen taking photographs but did not appear to be removing items.
FBI Director Kash Patel has said his agency is “assisting local authorities” in the matter. And two law enforcement sources familiar with the scene on Monday said federal agents continue to investigate Graham’s death out of an abundance of caution.
But no new evidence has arisen since Saturday night to indicate foul play, those sources said.
On Monday, South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster, a Republican, appointed Graham’s only sibling, Darline Graham, to fill out the remainder of her late brother’s term, which ends in January. Darline Graham is set to take the oath of office on Tuesday afternoon.
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