'This Week' Transcript 7-12-26: U.N. Ambassador Mike Waltz, Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) & Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX)

A rush transcript of "This Week with George Stephanopoulos" airing on Sunday, July 12, 2026 on ABC News is below. This copy may not be in its final form, may be updated and may contain minor transcription errors. For previous show transcripts, visit the "This Week" transcript archive.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MARTHA RADDATZ, ABC “THIS WEEK” CO-ANCHOR: Breaking overnight, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham has died.

“THIS WEEK” starts right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RADDATZ: Shocking tragedy. South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham dies unexpectedly at the age of 71.

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R) SOUTH CAROLINA: I’m not about making speeches alone. I’m about putting networks together.

RADDATZ: We’ll have a remembrance. And we’re joined by South Carolina Senator Tim Scott and Democrat Chris Coons as we look back at Graham’s life and legacy.

And bombing resumes once again with the Iranians claiming the Strait of Hormuz is now closed. We’re joined by U.N. Ambassador Mike Waltz.

Security concerns.

REPORTER: Are you aware of any credible threat by Iran against Air Force One?

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, I have a threat all the time. I’m number one on their list.

RADDATZ: President Trump returns from the NATO Summit, but not on the new Air Force One. “Regime Change” co-author Jonathan Swan joins our roundtable to discuss.

Mad scramble to replace Graham Platner after an allegation of sexual assault forced him to drop out. This morning, how will the party choose a new nominee?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: From ABC News, it’s “THIS WEEK.” Here now, Martha Raddatz.

RADDATZ: Good morning and welcome to this week. We begin with breaking and shocking news out of Washington this morning. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham has died. Shortly before 2:00 a.m. this morning, his office released a short statement saying the senator had passed away from a brief and sudden illness.

Graham served in the Senate for more than two decades and was a fierce advocate for democracy abroad, and especially Ukraine. He had just turned 71 on Thursday and was in Kyiv Friday on a bipartisan trip, meeting with President Zelenskyy.

Graham was an initial critic of President Trump, but turned into one of his biggest allies. President Trump, reacting to the news overnight, calling Graham one of the greatest senators he has ever known and a true American patriot.

We will speak with fellow South Carolina Senator Tim Scott in a moment. But first, a look back at Graham’s life and legacy.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RADDATZ (voice over): Shock waves across Washington and beyond this morning after the death of one of the most powerful and prominent lawmakers in the Senate, Lindsey Graham. The South Carolina senator died of a brief and sudden illness, according to a statement from his office. He had just turned 71.

Washington, D.C., EMS dispatched to Graham’s home on Saturday night for a man in apparent cardiac arrest.

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: (INAUDIBLE).

GRAHAM: Thank you very much.

RADDATZ (voice over): Graham had just returned to Washington from Ukraine, where he met with President Zelenskyy on Friday.

REPORTER: Good visit with the president, right?

ZELENSKYY: Yes, I think that we had really a good meeting.

RADDATZ (voice over): Zelenskyy writing on social media this morning he is “deeply saddened” by the news of Graham’s passing, adding, “Lindsey was a true defender of freedom and the values that make our world safer.”

More tributes to the late senator pouring in overnight. South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster, in a statement, calling Graham “the fiercest of fighters for South Carolina and America.”

Graham was first elected to the Senate in 2002. He defeated primary challengers last month to secure the Republican nomination to serve a fifth term. A long serving member of the Judiciary Committee, Graham chaired the committee from 2019 to 2021 and helped push through President Trump’s judicial nominees, including Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

GRAHAM: This is the most unethical sham since I’ve been in politics.

RADDATZ (voice over): He voted for President Obama’s appointed justices, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court, but helped to block Merrick Garland’s nomination following the death of Justice Antonin Scalia.

Earlier in his career, he was also involved in efforts to craft a bipartisan deal on immigration, working across the aisle. Graham was considered a hawk, a strong supporter of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and later Iran.

He became close with John McCain, who he considered a mentor, and Joe Lieberman, the trio known as the three amigos. McCain’s daughter Meghan sharing on X, “my dad was the soul of the group, Joe was the heart of the group, and Lindsey was the fire and humor. Their combination bonded them as friends throughout their lives.”

GRAHAM: He is loyal to his friends. He loves his country. And if he has to stand up to his party for his country, so be it. He would die for this country. I love him to death.

RADDATZ (voice over): Prior to his time in the Senate, he served in the House of Representatives for four terms, first elected in 1994. Graham gaining national attention for his role in President Bill Clinton’s impeachment, serving as an impeachment manager in his trial.

GRAHAM: Because impeachment is not about punishment. Impeachment is about cleansing the office.

RADDATZ (voice over): Born and raised in South Carolina, Graham served in the Air Force as a lawyer and in the South Carolina Air National Guard. He retired in 2015 at the rank of colonel, serving in the reserves while in Congress. Graham launched a campaign for president in 2015.

GRAHAM: No one here, including me, ever expected to hear me say, I’m Lindsey Graham and I’m running for president of the United States.

RADDATZ (voice over): Dropping out before the primaries, then a vocal critic of Donald Trump’s candidacy.

GRAHAM: I think he’s a kook. I think he’s crazy. I think he’s unfit for office.

RADDATZ (voice over): Graham later becoming one of President Trump’s strongest allies in the Senate. At times, a frequent golf partner and personal friend. President Trump writing on social media, “Senator Lindsey Graham, one of the greatest people and senators I have ever known, is dead. He was always working and was a true American patriot. Lindsey will be greatly missed.”

The late senator, earlier this year, asked how he’d like to be remembered.

GRAHAM: That I spoke up, shared my thoughts, creatively put together coalitions that moved the ball. I’m not about making speeches alone. I’m about putting networks together.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

RADDATZ: And he certainly will be remembered that way.

Of course, the news coming as a shock to so many in Congress this morning.

Let’s bring in our Capitol Hill correspondent, Jay O’Brien.

Jay, what’s the reaction been on Capitol Hill so far?

JAY O'BRIEN, ABC NEWS CAPITOL HILL CORRESPONDENT: Martha, this stunned senators on both sides of the aisle. John Thune, the majority leader in the Senate, saying that his heart is heavy this morning, calling Graham a, quote, “trusted advisor,” saying that numerous presidents and other heads of state have relied on his counsel. Roger Wicker, Republican senator of Mississippi, saying that there are “no words to describe Lindsey Graham.” And Jim Banks, Republican senator of Indiana, posting a photo of he and Graham when Graham was deployed to Afghanistan with the Air Force Reserves. He served in the reserves for ten years. He was also an active-duty Air Force lawyer for six years. Jim Banks saying that “the Senate will not be the same without Graham.”

Martha.

RADDATZ: And, Jay, Graham was up for re-election, as we said this year. So, what happens now?

O’BRIEN: So, Republicans in South Carolina now must, by state law, have a primary to pick a new candidate to replace Graham on the ballot. That has to happen rather quickly, in just the next few weeks. And then again, they’ve got to get a new name on that ballot for November.

RADDATZ: Thanks so much, Jay.

I’m joined now by Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina.

Senator, I'm so sorry for your loss, for the loss in your state.

SEN. TIM SCOTT, (R) SOUTH CAROLINA: Good morning.

RADDATZ: You and Senator Graham served together in the Senate for more than 13 years together. What do you want Americans to remember about him, your friend, your colleague?

SCOTT: Thank you so much.

I'll say, America lost a statesman, but I lost a friend. And one of the most important parts of the Lindsey Graham story and journey is that, here’s a person who always saw you. So often in politics, many Americans feel unseen, they feel invisible. And Lindsey saw them. So often he would take the time, and whether it was case work in his office, whether it was on the Senate floor, he always was looking for people who seemed and felt invisible.

And one of the most powerful forces for good, Lindsey Graham, is because his pain of his past, losing his mother and then, within 15 months, losing his father, that misery he used to make sure that everybody was seen and that he was absolutely aggressive about keeping Americans safe. It is his legacy, America is a safer country because of Lindsey Graham.

RADDATZ: You became the first black senator in the state’s history. Graham said of that historic moment, at the time, “this is a day that has been long in the making in South

Carolina.” He really did welcome you into the Senate.

SCOTT:  He did. He’s just a good person -- that was a good person, a great friend. And he had the ability to make you feel welcome. When you’re going to do something that has never been done before, you find yourself looking around a room for someone who seems to want to embrace you and accept you. Lindsey was very fast on that side. He was just dead there for me. He was right in the spot.

And I will always remember Lindsey Graham as a guy who was, as soon as I was appointed to the Senate, he embraced my candidacy for re-election. He was there on the campaign trail with me.

But to my mother, he became a friend. To my family, he became a friend. He was one of only three or four senators I invited to my wedding because Lindsey Graham had become a part of the family. And it is a rare thing in politics, a rare thing in life to find people who are actually your friend.

As Lindsey Graham said it a long time ago, it makes me laugh now, if you want a friend in Washington, D.C., buy a dog. And he, Martha, actually proved that concept wrong because he was my friend.

RADDATZ:  Well, Senator Graham was originally a critic of then-candidate Donald Trump. That certainly switched. He was one of the president’s most loyal followers.

How did that transition happen? And when you look at that, what did you see?

SCOTT:  Well, Martha, I think it happened over time. There -- here’s two hardcore, hard-working, hard-nosed individuals running essentially against each other, and then ultimately they became the best of friends. I can’t think of anyone in the Senate who spoke to President Trump more than Lindsey Graham.

The evolution of their relationship, I think, it started once again with their -- both their commitment to winning was incredible, but their willingness to listen, even when they vehemently disagreed, was remarkable. I've been in rooms with both of them.

And I've got to tell you that their true friendship could only be seen behind the curtain, so to speak, where they would argue back and forth over important issues, always respectfully. Lindsey Graham always understood the office of the presidency deserves respect, but he also said my friend, Donald J. Trump, deserves respect.

And that relationship was forged under fire because they had so many opportunities to work together from a foreign policy standpoint. But it was also forged on the golf course, where they had I bet you a 100-plus hours playing golf over a decade, understanding and appreciating the unique differences that they brought -- both brought to the table.

And it was the ability to see the benefit of talking to people not like yourself that made Lindsey Graham such a powerful force for good for our country. And I think that actually led he and President Trump to having a really powerful friendship.

RADDATZ:  Just quickly, a closing thought. How do you fill that hole?

SCOTT:  You don’t. Lindsey Graham was irreplaceable. What you do, however, is you try to move on.

And our state will have to move on. I think August will be a very busy month in South Carolina as we start the process of finding the Republican nominee for this November’s ballot. You can’t fill a Lindsey Graham hole.

I can tell you one thing, I can’t -- I don’t know another person who spent his entire adult life for one purpose, to make sure America remained the safest country on the planet to live. It was literally -- I think of his sister, and I think of America, that would be the two major ingredients to Lindsey Graham’s family.

RADDATZ:  OK.

SCOTT:  And he was just that committed to our country.

RADDATZ:  Thank you so much for joining us this morning and those thoughts, Senator.

SCOTT:  Yes, ma’am.

RADDATZ:  And I'm joined now by Delaware Democratic Senator Chris Coons, who was a good friend of Lindsey Graham.

Senator, thank you for being with us.

I know this must be especially hard for you. You had dinner with Senator Graham on his 71st birthday on Thursday night in Ankara, Turkey. This must be shocking and emotional for you.

SEN. CHRIS COONS, (D) DELAWARE:  It is, Martha. This was very hard news to wake up to this morning.

Lindsey Graham was -- look, as Tim just said, and I'll agree with him, no better friend, no tougher adversary. And he and I certainly fought plenty over our differences about politics and policy, but we also traveled the world together. We got to go to Africa many times, to the Middle East, to Europe.

Memorably, after the shocking attack of October 7th, Lindsey pulled together a bipartisan group of 10 senators. And we went to Tel Aviv, to Riyadh, and to Cairo.

The other members of that trip, which included folks, you know, from the far right and far left in the Senate, commented on how it was such a powerful and engaging trip.

He was one of the funniest men I have ever known. In a tense, diplomatic situation with a challenging meeting, he could break the ice. He could make everybody crack up.

The very first trip I took with him, I wrote down a whole list of Lindsey-isms. And I’m going to look for that because it is hard to lose him.

Over dinner, to celebrate his birthday, in Ankara, we were talking about how unlikely it was that either of us would end up senators. His childhood was hard. He was orphaned at a young age, and he never imagined he’d be a United States Senator.

He was in a good mood, having just won his primary. And he was very focused on Ukraine. We had met with President Zelenskyy earlier that day, and it was a great meeting. And he was jubilant that President Trump seemed in a better place.

The most important bill Lindsey Graham was working on, with Senator Dick Blumenthal, was a bill to apply greater pressure, more sanctions, more tariffs, to try and deter Russia’s brutal war of aggression against Ukraine. And Lindsey told me that President Trump had just said to him he would support the bill. And it’s my hope that we will take up and pass this bill in Lindsey’s memory this week when we all get back to session.

RADDATZ: And, Senator, you have these lovely memories of Senator Graham, but he often did clash with you. And he was a very strong supporter of President Trump. How did you talk about that? How did you get through that?

COONS: So, in a -- in a memorable exchange, we had, boy, this was, this was a couple of years ago. He and I were the chair and the ranking of the Appropriations Subcommittee that funded foreign aid. And it was in the first Trump administration. And he had saved foreign aid at that point. And it was the same week of the Kavanaugh fight, which was ugly and awful.

And he and I were at the same event. And someone said to me, how can you stand Lindsey Graham? And I said, well, I love him like a brother, which means, when I fight with him, I want to kill him. And they’re awful and ugly fights. And yet when we work together and when I see the good that he wants to do for our country, I’m able to forgive him and find the positives in him.

We had knock-down, drag-out fights. The Kavanaugh confirmation was exceptionally ugly. There were other things he did I really, really disagreed with and thought were bad choices and violated our shared values. But I also saw him in his best moments, fighting fiercely for the underdog in America --

RADDATZ: Senator --

COONS: For freedom around the world and for a better future for all.

RADDATZ: Senator, we thank you so much. And our condolences once again.

Coming up, the U.S. escalating attacks on Iran last night after Iran hit another commercial ship in the Strait of Hormuz. I’ll speak with U.N. Ambassador Mike Waltz when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Is the ceasefire over? Is the ceasefire done? Is the MOU dead?

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's a very interesting question. To me, I think it's over. I don't want to deal with anything, but they're scum. You know what scum is? They're scum. They're sick people. They're led by sick people. And they're vicious, violent people, and if they had a nuclear weapon, they'd use it. As far as I'm concerned, it's over.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RADDATZ: President Trump at the NATO summit saying the ceasefire with Iran was over after renewed strikes this week broke the fragile truce. After efforts at negotiations in the region over the weekend, last night a new escalation. Iran saying the Strait of Hormuz is closed after they fired on a commercial ship. The U.S. responding with its third round of strikes on targets inside Iran in the past week.

I'm joined now by the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., Michael Waltz.

Good morning, Mr. Ambassador. I want to start first with your thoughts about Senator Graham. I think you first met him when he was a colonel in the Air National Guard, and you met him in Afghanistan. Thoughts this morning?

MIKE WALTZ, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS: I did. My heart breaks for his family, particularly his sister, who he raised, while putting himself through college after losing their parents at an early age, his nieces.

For South Carolina, he took such pride, whether it was a little old lady who didn't get the benefits she deserved, that was married to a veteran, and Lindsey would lean in and tell the bureaucracy we're going to do this the easy way or the hard way. Or as I just -- as you just mentioned, I met him in Afghanistan. He was there on his reserve duty. Senator Graham would become Colonel Graham. It drove the Pentagon crazy, by the way.

Not only was he out there training the Afghan JAG officers, but really what he wanted was ground truth. And that's what he really prized. And I think everyone should remember him for, that he brought that ground truth back. He always looked out for the troops and that, you know, at the end of the day, he said our freedoms can never be taken for granted. They have to be defended with strength. And we have to support our military to keep us all safe and free and our economy open.

RADDATZ: Well, the senator certainly supported President Trump's war in Iran. So let's turn to that. Overnight, the U.S. resumed bombing, the third time this week. And the president had given Iran yet another chance with a meeting in Oman on Saturday, demanding that Iran say publicly that the strait would be opened and they would not fire on ships. That did not happen. We bombed again. They said nothing like that publicly.

How did this fall apart so quickly?

WALTZ: Well, I think Iran is still very much of the mindset that it can use the global economy as some type of leverage. We've -- not just the United States, but we've said here at the United Nations, 143 nations have stood together and said what Iran is doing is in violation of international law. Regardless of whether you're party to some conflict, you cannot start shooting in all directions, attacking your neighbors, attacking civilian shipping, civilian infrastructure, throwing mines in international waterways, and acting like the irresponsible genocidal regime that many have always accused it of being.

RADDATZ: Ambassador --

WALTZ: And so the world stands with the United States that this is unacceptable behavior. And the president, just to directly answer your question, has always said this was a performance-based MOU. Iran is not living up to it, and all options are on the table. We saw that from our great U.S. military overnight.

RADDATZ: On Friday, a senior U.S. official said that the Iranians had come to you and said that it was a mistake that they fired on a commercial ship last week. Did you believe them? They said it was an errant part of the regime. Who is the errant part of the regime, and did you believe them?

WALTZ:  Well, look, is the Iranian regime just completely out of control? Is -- who are we ultimately negotiating with? And if that is to be believed, then where is the discipline? I mean, this is a regime that massacred 40,000 people in the street for daring to protest.

RADDATZ:  But are you talking about the IRGC?

(CROSSTALK)

WALTZ:  Hanging young people and athletes, but -- but yet -- but, Martha, but yet, we're going to have -- we're supposed to believe that some junior officers are going rogue and firing on ships, but yet face no consequences from a dictatorial hierarchy-based entity like the IRGC.

I don't buy it. I don't think we buy it. And at the end of the day, where's the discipline and the public apology if that's the case? And that's simply what the president and his team asked for.

Instead, we got --

(CROSSTALK)

RADDATZ:  But the president is going back and forth.

WALTZ:  -- we got more attacks, and now, you're going to get a response.

RADDATZ:  The president goes back and forth. He said the people he was talking to were very rational, nice to deal with, strong, smart. And then they're suddenly scum.

What happened there?

WALTZ:  Well, I'll just use the president's own words. He got to know them.

And this is a regime that cheated on the JCPOA, is obsessed with a nuclear weapon, has said they will use one if they get one. And look at what they're doing to the world's economy with drones and missiles. One could only imagine what they would do with a nuclear weapon.

And as I asked in the U.N. Security Council, they've attacked ships from Singapore, from Cyprus, from Panama. So they use this false notion of self-defense. What did any of those countries, what did those civilian seafarers do to Iran? They did nothing to Iran.

They’re -- they attacked their own people. They're attacking the global economy. They're attacking their neighbors.

They’re -- this is a regime that is incredibly difficult to deal with. We can have no trust in all verify. But I will say, Martha, that the technical teams, in terms of the nuclear file, are still talking.

The president's ultimate goal, and he's been very clear and very consistent, is this regime cannot have a nuclear weapon. And those experts in terms of what to do with their highly enriched uranium, with their enrichment program, with the sites that we hit in Midnight Hammer, they are still talking, even though the ceasefire has broken down.

RADDATZ:  And I -- and I have to ask you quickly, Mike Huckabee, the ambassador in Israel, our ambassador in Israel, said the Israelis did talk about a new plot -- a specific plot against the president. Is that true or false?

WALTZ:  Well, I won't get into specific intelligence, but this regime, going all the way up to the Ayatollah, has plotted to kill President Trump for many years. And not only him, but many of his cabinet officials that were involved in the killing of the Iranian general, Soleimani.

They have operatives here in the United States. Plots are ongoing. But our intelligence community, the FBI, our law enforcement entities are absolutely on top of it. But make no mistake: that the Iranian regime is trying to kill President Trump and those around him. It is absolutely -- and it's just unacceptable on so many levels.

RADDATZ:  Okay. Thank you for joining us again this morning. We appreciate your time.

Coming up, all the fallout for Democrats in Maine after the exit of Graham Platner from that critical Senate race. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

RADDATZ:  It's the Senate seat Democrats have to flip to take back control of Congress. Instead, this morning, soul-searching and uncomfortable questions in Maine about how a candidate like Graham Platner survived the vetting process, and why some of the biggest names in progressive politics brushed aside earlier allegations to support his campaign. Now, with Graham Platner officially out of the race, what happens next?

Let's go back to our Jay O'Brien reporting from Maine.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN (voice-over):  This week, Democrats here in Maine scrambling to recover from the collapsed campaign of Graham Platner. At the state party headquarters, the phone hasn't stopped ringing for 31-year-old Executive Director, Devon Murphy-Anderson, and this small team, along with a growing army of unpaid volunteers.

They're in uncharted political waters, building from scratch a candidate selection process in a race that could decide who controls the United States Senate.

DEVON MURPHY-ANDERSON, MAINE DEMOCRATIC PARTY EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR:  As everyone now knows in the country, we owe the secretary of state at 5 p.m. on Monday, July 27th, a name.

O'BRIEN:  You got two weeks.

MURPHY-ANDERSON:  Yep, we've got two weeks.

(LAUGH)

MURPHY-ANDERSON:  So our goal going into this was to make this as fair and transparent and inclusive a process as possible.

O'BRIEN (voice-over):  Democrats are now planning a 600-person party convention to be held July 25th, just two days before their deadline. Voters will also have a say, Murphy-Anderson tells us, including meeting within their local parties beforehand.

O'BRIEN:  That's the biggest problem facing you guys, isn't it? Making sure that voters who voted in that primary overwhelmingly for Graham Platner feel represented.

MURPHY-ANDERSON:  I think we face a lot of challenges, right?

(LAUGH)

MURPHY-ANDERSON:  And that is definitely one of them. And so the grassroots energy that we had up until this moment needs to find a home. And so one of the ways --

O'BRIEN:  Are you worried that it might not?

MURPHY-ANDERSON:  No, I'm not. And if you are here on the ground in Maine, I'm confident that you will come away with that same conclusion.

O'BRIEN (voice-over):  An oyster farmer and Marine combat veteran, Platner, built an insurgent progressive campaign and guided it through storm after storm of other scandals, including reports he sent sexually explicit messages to multiple women shortly after he was married in 2023.

Progressives largely sticking by him until less than a week ago, when an ex-girlfriend accused Platner of sexual assault, an allegation he says isn't true.

GRAHAM PLATNER, (D) FORMER MAINE SENATE CANDIDATE:  I learned about this through press inquiries, with no time to truly respond, no time for investigations before a corporate media system and the political establishment got to act as judge, jury and executioner.

O'BRIEN (voice-over):  A chorus of Democrats, including top supporters like Senator Bernie Sanders, then pushing Platner to step aside.

PLATNER:  We believe that for the movement to continue, it can't be made.

O'BRIEN (voice-over):  Ultimately ending his campaign, Platner blamed large forces working against him after Senate leadership threatened to pull campaign funding. Only a few days old, the race to replace Platner is already in full swing.

At least seven hopefuls so far pitching themselves as the best bet to unseat Maine's longtime Republican Senator, Susan Collins. This November, she's the only Republican defending a Senate seat in a state Trump lost in 2024.

The list of candidates includes former state senate president and logger, Troy Jackson, trying to pick up Platner’s working class mantle. Also Maine’s secretary of state, Shenna Bellows, Maine beer company founder Dan Kleban and the state’s former CDC director Dr. Nirav Shah, who we met just days into his new campaign.

O’BRIEN: Are you worried that Graham Platner’s scandals have made it harder to defeat Susan Collins?

DR. NIRAV SHAH, (D) MAINE SENATE CANDIDATE: I haven’t.

O’BRIEN: You don’t think you’ve lost valuable time as a -- as a candidate or as a Democrat?

SHAH: No. I don’t think so. Our mission hasn’t changed. The person who’s going to be at the front of that mission is changing. But the desire, the enthusiasm, the zeal among Democrats to defeat Susan Collins has not changed at all.

O’BRIEN (voice over): For Collins, who’s won five Senate races in this state, changing her opponent doesn’t impact her approach, telling our ABC affiliate WMTW.

SEN. SUSAN COLLINS, (R) MAINE: I never take any race for granted.

O’BRIEN (voice over): As some Platner supporters tell us they’re grieving his campaign.

MARK READ, MAINE VOTER: I think most of us were attracted to, you know, the politics that he spoke to. And if another candidate can speak to those politics and those concerns, I think Platner supporters will get behind that person.

O’BRIEN (voice over): They’re also hoping their second choice doesn’t hurt Democratic chances in November.

O’BRIEN: Are you worried that some of them now won’t come out to the polls in November in a race that’s a must win for Democrats?

SANDRA SMITH CONGDON, MAINE VOTER: I think people will take some time. But I think ultimately they will.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

RADDATZ: The race to watch. Our thanks to Jay.

The roundtable is here to discuss that and more. We’re back in two minutes.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

RADDATZ: The roundtable’s all here. Former DNC chair Donna Brazile, “The New York Times” Jonathan Swan, co-author of the new book “Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump,” “New Yorker” staff writer Susan Glasser, and “National Review” editor Ramesh Ponnuru.

Welcome to all of you this morning.

And, of course, I want to start with some thoughts about Lindsey Graham.

And, Donna, he was a mighty force on The Hill.

DONNA BRAZILE, FORMER DNC CHAIR & ABC NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Absolutely. You know, it’s ironic that he spent his last day doing what he has done his entire career, which is spending time with an ally under fire. That was his tenth visit to Ukraine.

I knew Senator Graham first as a congressman, later as somebody who, when I was on Fox News, you could disagree with him, but you can do it with a smile.

My sympathy for the people of South Carolina, his family, but he will be missed for the work that he contributed to this country, and most importantly, for the service he also gave.

RADDATZ:  And, Jonathan, you've written about this a lot -- his complicated relationship with President Trump.

JONATHAN SWAN, NEW YORK TIMES WHITE HOUSE REPORTER & AUTHOR, “REGIME CHANGE”:  Yeah, look, he's going to -- his loss is a huge loss for the hawkish camp when it comes to Iran and Ukraine, not just because Lindsey Graham was such a major voice in Trump's ear. He was also very good at coordinating. He -- I mean, when you have groups of people who come to Trump at different times, he was like an orchestra conductor.

This person would call, then this person would call, and keeping Trump on the hawkish side of these issues was really a Lindsey Graham project. So he's, they've sort of lost the leader of that -- of that camp.

RADDATZ:  And the president really, really liked him.

SWAN:  He did. I was going to say, it's not even that complicated a relationship, but he actually had a lot of affection for him. I mean, it started out pretty complicated, and then basically there were a few little blow ups, but essentially they were golf partners, allies, all the rest of it.

RADDATZ:  Susan, foreign policy, as Donna mentioned, that was really where his heart was always.

SUSAN GLASSER, NEW YORKER STAFF WRITER:  No, that's exactly right.

And, you know, Lindsey Graham not only has been pushing President Trump and Republicans to support Ukraine, even at times when it looked pretty hopeless with President Trump.

And, you know, I think about that at a moment when Mitch McConnell, the other great Republican supporter of Ukraine in the Senate among Republicans is, you know, no longer really present and advocating. So I think it's a shift in Washington.

But remember also the thing about Lindsey Graham was that in a joyless, stressful, increasingly partisan time in Washington, this man essentially just was irrepressible in his not only love of the game, but desire to be in the mix.

And many people were looking for explanations --

RADDATZ:  And he was funny.

GLASSER:  Well, people looking for explanations over the years, how he could make such a radical shift from calling Donald Trump a kook to being his best friend in the Senate.

Lindsey Graham himself told us the answer. He said, you know, I've never talked to a president as much. I remember when we ran into him at the beginning of Trump's first impeachment, gave us the idea for a book that we ultimately ended up writing, actually, Martha.

But he said, you know, OK, Donald Trump, he doesn't always tell the truth, but he's so much fun to be with.

And I think Lindsey Graham actually still saw the fun in politics at a time when many people do not.

RADDATZ:  He certainly did.

And, Ramesh, Susan mentioned Mitch McConnell. We just know nothing about him at this point. He's been in the hospital, as far as we know, since June 14th, hasn't been seen on the Hill since the 11th. No information.

RAMESH PONNURU, NATIONAL REVIEW EDITOR & ABC NEWS CONTRIBUTOR:  There's a long and unfortunately bipartisan tradition of elected officials not being transparent about health issues. And I think Senator McConnell is falling into that category right now.

And you understand why people want to be private about these things. But I do think that there's a public interest that ought to override.

RADDATZ:  And Donna, I want to turn to Maine. We watched Jay O'Brien's piece from up there. You've been in touch with party officials. You watched this from the beginning.

Was this a crisis of the Democrats' own making?

BRAZILE:  There's a lot of blame to go around. There's a lot of blame from both -- if you want to call the establishment side, who tried to insert a candidate who clearly wasn't capable of gaining the attraction with voters. I'm speaking of the governor, who I have a great deal of respect for.

But Mr. Platner was a flawed candidate. We should have known from the tattoo, from the social postings, from --

RADDATZ:  Is it a “I don't want to know about it” attitude?

BRAZILE:  Well, there's so much anger right now within not just the Democratic Party, but the electorate as in general. And Mr. Platner was this sort of brawny guy, you know, the guy you see on the paper towels, this tough, I can tell the world what I think.

And he came out on central casting, but, you know, he had flaws and character still matters.

Look, the truth is the Maine Democratic Party is rushing to find a nominee. They could have chosen someone, the central committee, but the chairman, along with the 100 members, decided to open up the process. All 16 counties will be involved. There will be a menu of candidates.

But the bottom line is there's a lot of blame to go around.

RADDATZ:  And, Jonathan, there were no real apologies. We were sitting there watching Platner. Boy, he just took off after the media, after the establishment.

So how did the Democrats deal with that?

SWAN:  Well, I think the interesting story about Platner -- yes, there's a story of hypocrisy and, you know, deciding to look past the Nazi tattoo. But he wasn't put in there by the party elites.

He's a voter -- he was connecting with voters in a powerful way. And look, far be it for me to give advice to the Democrats, I'm certainly not going to. But there needs to be a deep examination of why is it that someone like that has such a deep connection now with voters, that this is what voters are looking for.

It is a real question, and the party elite is clearly so out of touch with where the electorate is, certainly in that race.

RADDATZ:  And the Maine voters. Clearly, Bernie Sanders was behind him. What does that do to Bernie Sanders' reputation? Anything? There weren't a lot of huge apologies after from them either.

GLASSER:  Yeah, no, look, Platner was embraced by, you know, basically the entire kind of progressive wing of the Democratic Party. People are, as Donna said, there's a lot of visceral anger among the Democratic electorate. There are different diagnoses of why that is.

Some people, like Bernie Sanders, see that as an ideological rebellion, if you will, against kind of the left-centrism of the party elite. But others see it as more about insiders and outsiders, more about anger at Democrats that Donald Trump was re-elected. And so I think we're going to see this fall which diagnosis was right, Martha.

RADDATZ:  And Ramesh, how is Susan Collins looking? This helps her?

PONNURU:  Well, I think Collins would have clearly preferred Platner. I think even before the rape allegation that knocked Platner out of the race, Platner was looking like a weaker candidate because of everything else surrounding him. So this was a bad week for Collins, a bad week for Republicans, good week for Democrats.

But when Collins said in that clip we aired earlier, she never takes any race for granted, that's absolutely right. She has proven to be a wily survivor and Democrat, whoever they're putting up to contest that race against her, should not underestimate her.

RADDATZ:  And Jonathan, I want to turn to the Air Force One this week. You have written about that as well. President Trump took the old Air Force One out of the NATO Summit in Ankara, said it was going to see soldiers.

SWAN:  Right.

RADDATZ:  But The New York Times and others after that said it was basically security concerns. And now, the reporters from The New York Times who broke that story have been subpoenaed.

SWAN:  Yeah. Unfortunately, it's not the first time Trump has subpoenaed reporters or sent, in some cases, the FBI to their doorsteps for simply doing their jobs, doing reporting. The story that the president put out about this jet was not true. The story that my colleagues reported is true. It was very foreseeable.

This Qatari jet was not suitable for going into a theatre like that. It doesn't have the defensive equipment that -- you know, there's a reason why it was taking so long to prepare the new Air Force One. It wasn't only because of Boeing's inadequacies.

So Trump was very angry about the story.

(CROSSTALK)

RADDATZ:  And the DOJ statement about that --

SWAN:  Yeah.

RADDATZ:  -- basically said, look, we're not going after the reporters. We're going about -- we're going after those who leaked classified information that could hurt national security, which is almost a validation of what they wrote.

SWAN:  Yeah. You know, leaked investigations don't tend to look like this. And when you send federal law enforcement to the doorstep of a reporter, hard to view it as anything other than intimidation.

BRAZILE:  It raises the question, why did he get a plane that is not ready to fly? They're trying to retrofit it to the tune of, what, $1 billion, $400 million? I don't want to get a subpoena. I don't want nothing.

But why did they retrofit a plane that couldn't even fly into a zone like this? That's the question.

SWAN:  Trump wanted a luxury jet. That was really -- it's not that much more complicated than that. Obviously it can fly. It just doesn't have the defensive equipment that you would expect from an Air Force One.

People who are experts in this that talk to my colleagues say, fine to fly it domestically. Just don't be flying it into a country that borders Iran.

RADDATZ:  But apparently, it is very comfortable. I'm sorry, guys. This is all the time we have today.

Up next, Congressman Michael McCaul is fresh off a meeting with President Zelenskyy in Ukraine.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MICHAEL MCCAUL (R-TX): Good to see you.

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, PRESIDENT OF UKRAINE: Sir, how are you?

MCCAUL: So good to see you.

ZELENSKYY: The NATO summit was successful for us. I hope that it will continue.

MCCAUL: We were on the front lines. The -- visiting your air assault brigades and I have to say we were very impressed. I mean, the innovation you've made with your drone technology is very impressive.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RADDATZ: Ukraine's President Zelenskyy this week with Congressman Michael McCaul, who was awarded the country's Medal of Freedom for his staunch support of Ukraine through the more than four-year long conflict.

Congressman McCaul joins me now from Warsaw, Poland after his visit to Ukraine.

Good morning to you, Congressman.

MCCAUL: Good morning.

RADDATZ: I know you are as shocked as anyone about the news about Lindsey Graham. You were friends with Senator Graham. He had just left Ukraine as well, although I knew you were on different codels. How do you think Senator Graham should be remembered?

MCCAUL: Well, first of all, it's a sad day for America. I think the Senate lost a giant today. He was my mentor, my friend. We shared the same worldview that when we are strongest at home, the United States is, when we're stronger abroad. He believed in a strong America and a strong foreign policy. He believed in Reagan's peace through strength doctrine. And I think that's how he would like to be remembered.

I also remember so many trips with him and the legendary John McCain, who started that, you know, for -- over the years traveling with him. A very great sense of humor, but great vision, great ideas. The latest one is the sanctions bill that we've worked on for the last year. We were planning to introduce the sanction bill together this coming week.

I will still introduce that bill, the Senate will, and I think in his honor that we owe it to Lindsey Graham to pass that tough Russian sanctions bill. He would love nothing more than that.

RADDATZ: And what about aid to Ukraine? Where does that stand?

MCCAUL: Well, I think the biggest aid that we're giving them is through the ISR, Intelligence Surveillance Reconnaissance. I know with the Defense Intelligence Agency in Ukraine. I have to say, also, the NATO Summit had a big impression on Ukraine. Zelenskyy was very upbeat because two things happened there. One, President Trump agreed to these licensing agreements so that Ukraine can build their own interceptor -- Patriot interceptors to take down the ballistic missile threat, which is our biggest vulnerability right now.

But secondly, I think most importantly, the morale boost. As I was on the front lines, the morale boost to the troops who were, by the way, Martha, winning now, who would have thought that four years ago, that they'd be winning the war four years later?

But also, the political will of the Ukrainians and President Zelenskyy walking out of that meeting, that was a game changer, a truly remarkable meeting between President Trump and Zelenskyy, and I think we're on the right course.

RADDATZ:  Congressman, you talked about the Patriot missile batteries. That would take many, many years to build those. So, don't they need more help right now?

MCCAUL:  That's exactly what we were talking about. You know, when I passed the Emergency Wartimes Supplemental Bill, it gave them a lifeline, $60 billion in military equipment, a lifeline to advance to where they are today. Now, they are the leader in the world in terms of drone technology. We need to be in that laboratory. You know, the best testing ground is on the battlefield, and they are learning so much.

You are correct, though; it takes one to two years for Lockheed to make these interceptors. I think the Ukrainians can make them faster. But we have to come up with creative ways to get interceptors in there now.

We need to give them a short-term Band-Aid to fix this problem. They're winning in the -- in the drone war space. Where they're vulnerable, and I experienced this in Kyiv several nights, are the constant bombardments of ballistic missiles, and Putin knows they're vulnerable here, and we need to help them stop that.

RADDATZ:  And on that -- on that -- on that point, we just have a few seconds here. President Trump says he thinks Putin wants to end this. Does anything signal that to you? Quickly if you can.

MCCAUL:  No. The only thing that will end it is maximum pressure to get Putin to the negotiating table. President Zelenskyy told me just yesterday, he's ready for a ceasefire. He's ready to negotiate. The only man stopping this peace process is Mr. Putin. And that won't happen until we put maximum pressure, that being the interceptors, the drones, which are knocking out billions of dollars of Russian equipment and technology, and the Russian sanctions that Lindsey Graham wanted so -- so much.

RADDATZ:  OK, thanks for joining us this morning. Safe travels back home.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

RADDATZ: That is all for today. Thanks for sharing part of your Sunday with us. We close with this image of the White House with the flag flying at half-staff for Senator Lindsey Graham. Our condolences again to Senator Graham's family.

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