Matt Chorley

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Asma Khalid

How has America shaped the world? I'm Asma Khalid, host of the Global Story podcast from the BBC. As the United States marks its 250 year anniversary, we've been exploring the surprising and often hidden ways the US has shaped the modern world. And today on the show we answer your questions about this moment and what to expect in the years to come from the BBC. It's the United States at 250. Listen to the Global Story on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts.

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Justin Webb

Lindsey Graham has died. Lindsey Graham was a hugely important American politician. He'd been a senator for many, many years. He had a lot of friendships on the Democratic side of the Senate, although he himself was a Republican and in recent years a big supporter of Donald Trump, though he used to be an opponent of him. So what does the death of Lindsey Graham mean for American politics? Also, what is going on with Mitch McConnell, who used to be the Republican's boss in the is now ill and might he be replaced in his Senate seat by someone who opposes Donald Trump? It's all very complicated as ever. Add to that what's going on in Iran, which actually some of it at least takes place during the course of this edition of America Answers with Matt Chorley, with Sumi, with Anthony and with me. Welcome to Americ Answers.

Sumi Somaskanda

Ameracast ameracast from BBC News.

Donald Trump

You hear that, John? Oh, I think when I hear that sound, it reminds me of money.

Justin Webb

We didn't start this war, but under President Trump, we are finishing it.

Sumi Somaskanda

This is a big cover up and this administration is engaged in it. This guy has Trump derangement syndrome.

Asma Khalid

I have four words for you.

Matt Chorley

Turn the volume up. We have got an awful lot to get to, so let's get stuck in. Straight away, we've got Valerie in Didcot on the line. Hello, Valerie.

Sumi Somaskanda

Hello, Matt. How are.

Matt Chorley

I'm very well. What is your question for the Americansters?

Sumi Somaskanda

What's the impact of Lindsey Graham suddenly and unexpectedly passing? And the second part is, did it force Mitch McConnell into announcing that he's alive and well after weeks of conspiracy theory and Speculation.

Matt Chorley

So let's take those two parts of Valerie's. Excellent question, Anthony. Let's start first of all with just the huge news of the death of Lindsey Graham. For listeners who don't know or don't follow American politics as closely as perhaps we do, just explain the significance of Lindsey Graham in the Republican Party in American politics more generally.

Anthony Zurcher

Sure. Lindsey Graham has been in the United States Senate since 2002, representing the Conservative state of South Carolina. Prior to that, he was in the House of Representatives. He's had an on again, off again relationship with Donald Trump. A critic and then a supporter, then a critic and then a supporter again. But the importance of him, at least in this juncture, was that he has been a close friend and surrogate for Donald Trump in the United States Senate. He has been a robust advocate for the Iran war and for support for Israel. He has also been a supporter of Ukraine and their fight against Russia and has tried to pressure Donald Trump to be more supportive of Ukraine. In fact, he was just over in Ukraine visiting Volodymyr Zelenskyy two days before he passed suddenly of a heart condition on Saturday night. He kind of is the Trump whisperer for the United States Senate. He helps shepherd through Donald Trump's legislative agenda through the Senate. He's had a good relationship with Democrats there. He was a golf buddy of Trump, so he was able to kind of be the go between that would help Trump. And his absence now is going to have huge implications for getting Donald Trump's judicial nominees confirmed and for getting any other legislation through the Senate, through the Congress for the rest of this year.

Sumi Somaskanda

Yeah, I would absolutely agree with what Anthony said. You know, being the Donald Trump whisperer was a role that Lindsey Graham in the last few years in particular really embraced. You know, in that time of what some call purgatory for Donald Trump when he lost the 2020 election, before the 2024 election, it was Lindsey Graham who went down to Mar a Lago to meet with Donald Trump, to golf with him, to try to convince him to abandon some of his grievances, those unfounded claims of the 2020 election being rigged to say, look, you need to focus on the future and salvaging your political career. Of course, that did happen, as we know. But interesting to note that Lindsey Graham, after the January 6 riots on the Capitol, he on the Senate floor said, count me out, enough is enough. And some took that to mean that he had had enough with Donald Trump. Well, that wasn't the case. And later he said, what I mean is, Enough with this process, enough with the controversy over this election. It is over. And now we see him, of course, as one of President Trump's biggest supporters. And with his passing, it's gonna be interesting to see what impact that has on foreign policy. The Iran war was. He was a full throated supporter of it and was skeptical of any agreement to be reached with Iran. And a sort of kind of pressure point for President Trump to really push the Iranians. So now that that's gone, that will be a glaring exception for the Senate as well.

Matt Chorley

He's a big figure in American politics for a long time, Justin, but presumably overlapping when you were there.

Justin Webb

Yeah, very much so. And always representing. And I think this is the real point of Lindsey Graham and of his departure from the scene is he was a Senate guy through and through. He really believed in being independent of the rest of politics and of plowing his own furrow. He was very friendly, certainly when I was there, he was very friendly with a lot of Democratic Party senators, including, actually, Joe Biden. Enormously friendly with him. Didn't like it when Donald Trump was unpleasant about Biden, but famously, of course, with Joe Lieberman, the former Democratic senator and presidential candidate or vice presidential candidate. And they were real pals. And they used to travel around the world with John McCain as well. Remember John McCain? Great kind of leader of the idea that America should be intervening in the world and they could intervene for the better, et cetera, et cetera. But fundamentally that senators could make a difference. And you think of all that's going on at the moment and all of Donald Trump's power and all the rest of it, and all the way, and we keep talking about this on amerracast, the way in which Congress, both the House of Representatives and the Senate, seemed to be absent, and he wasn't absent. I mean, you say what you like about him, and he certainly did. He made some enemies when he got cozy with Trump, but he believed in his own independence and his own right to say things. And there is a dwindling group actually, of senators who really can carry that off, and it's a big blow to them.

Matt Chorley

Okay, so I think listeners will now understand the significance of Lindsey Graham, what then of Mitch McConnell and his apparent need to prove that he was still alive. Anthony, what's going on?

Donald Trump

Right.

Anthony Zurcher

We got a post on Sunday on social media of Mitch McConnell with a message to Kentuckians, to Americans, talking about his health condition, how he's still convalescing in the hospital and he's not ready his doctors say he's not ready yet to return to the halls of the United States Senate. Of course. Mitch McConnell, former Republican Senate leader, one of the longest serving Republican Senate leaders. He's been in Congress for decades. Very influential. But accompanying this message was a photo of McConnell's sitting next to his wife in a hospital. Badeline Chao, who is also a prominent conservative politician and former labor secretary. And then off to one side, you could see a little glimmer of a newspaper. A lot of sleuths looked at that newspaper to see if it was current and it apparently was the Washington Post from Sunday sitting next to him. So we have proof of life, I think that's what you call it in a hostage situation. Now, he has not otherwise shown up publicly, but at least this is an indication that he is still alive despite conspiracy theories. And on the mandan, maybe Lindsey Graham's passing did, as Valerie suggests, did kind of force McConnell's hand to show up and show out. Because as soon as the grieving for Graham was over, I think attention would return to McConnell in his health.

Matt Chorley

Yeah, we've had another Americaster who whatsapped in that said, I live in London, but I'm back home visiting, so I assume that's back in America. And I'm hearing stories about a cover up of Mitch McConnell's wellbeing. These range for me. He's unwell, but fine. We'll be back shortly till he's incredibly unwell and won't be able to return. And finally, that he's already deceased and this info is being suppressed. In the last two scenarios, it's claimed that everyone in the Republican Party from Trump down is part of this conspiracy to keep Massey, the former congressman, from running. There's a filing deadline in a few weeks. Is there any truth to the last two scenarios? Thanks.

Justin Webb

Yeah, I mean, and Steve Bannon and others who are not unadjacent to conspiracy theories have certainly been putting it around. So Thomas Massie, this guy who's lost his seat in Kentucky, he was a member of the House of Representatives. He was a really outspoken enemy of Donald Trump in recent years, particularly over Jeffrey Epstein, a real nuisance to Donald Trump. Donald Trump might himself have used rather stronger language about him and got rid of him, effectively stood someone against him in the primary election to see if he was going to represent the Republicans again. And the guy who stood against him once. So he's kind of footloose and fancy free but well known in the state of Kentucky. That's where Mitch McConnell is from in most American states, when someone dies, a senator D the governor, Anthony will correct me if I'm wrong on this. In most American states, the governor then just appoints someone. The governor of Kentucky is a Democrat. But oddly in Kentucky, as in a few other states, that doesn't happen. And there are various complicated rules. But basically, if it's a certain number of days away from the election, which is being held in November, then you would get to appoint, you would get to have a special election and that would then allow Thomas Mass, this enemy of Donald Trump, to stand. I don't think he could stand as a Republican because I don't think they'd choose him. But he could certainly stand in the election and be a real nuisance to Trump. And either of my American colleagues can correct or add to what I just said. But that's the basic. So in other words, it's not a complete conspiracy theory.

Matt Chorley

It could happen. Sue, tell Justin where he's gone wrong.

Sumi Somaskanda

No, Justin's spot on there. There is a lot of complicated political machinations happening on One thing to keep in mind is Kentucky is a deep red Republican state, but it has a Democrat governor, Andy Beshear. And I think part of the pressure, of course it was Lindsey Graham's passing. But Andy Beshear publicly called out to Mitch McConnell last week and said, give us an update on your health. And what Republicans did, and this is what Justin was referring to a few years ago is they passed a law saying that it's not the governor who gets to name a replacement if there's a vacancy, like in this case with Mitch McConnell. If Mitch McConnell were not to come back to his job, of course it would be then a special election, as Justin said. Now there are legal experts who say that doesn't really hold up to the Constitution of Kentucky, but they don't want a Democrat appointing, you know, a fill for Mitch McConnell, a Republican. And so that's an added piece of what makes a really complicated picture in Kentucky right now.

Anthony Zurcher

And also I'll point out that Mitch McConnell was retiring. He was going to be out of the Senate one way or the other in January. So all of this talk of appointments and stuff, special elections, all of that would have just filled the Senate seat for a matter of a few months. There are these, there already is a Republican nominee to replace him who's going to run in November, a Democratic nominee to run against him in November. So it is a very small window. It seems like a lot of effort to fill something with Thomas Fassey or someone else when, when in all honestly, it's all going to be moot come January.

Justin Webb

But that's also, I mean the important thing there is is that you've got this kind of real, the window of opportunity. If you're gonna run Massey, then you need. If you're not gonna run Massey, if you're gonna prevent Massey coming, you need Mitch McConnell to be alive and that proof of life to exist until all this way, until nearly the election is on us in November. I think it's 56 days from memory, but I mean there is a number of days. Is that it? August 3rd.

Anthony Zurcher

Yeah.

Matt Chorley

I just like the sort of old school in a world of AI and deep fakes and all of that. The old school having your photo taken with today's

Justin Webb

a thing.

Anthony Zurcher

Thank God for print newspapers.

Matt Chorley

Yeah, print is back.

Anthony Zurcher

How are you going to do that when it's all online?

Matt Chorley

Yeah, just holding, holding up a web page. Is this not as, not as convincing somehow? We thank you for that and the other Americans who got in touch as well. Let's move on because we've got more questions. John in Yorkshire asking about Iran says are America's renewed attacks on Iran a petty response to the signs of defiance and revenge during the recent Iranian funeral parade? So yesterday US military launched more strikes against Iran with the US Central Command posting on X to continue degraded their ability to attack civilian mariners and commercial ships freely transiting the Strait of Hormuz. Trump telling Reuters on the phone on Sunday, we're beating them up. What's behind all of this, do you think, Sumi?

Sumi Somaskanda

I think, you know, in part this is in a way a response to Iran's show of strength, which that week long funeral procession and events did reflect. But on the other hand, this is very much about who is in control of the Strait of Hormuz. Look at the types of strikes that the US Is carrying out here. These are strikes specifically on the southern coast of Iran along the strait. And for President Trump, this has been an incredible source of frustration. He says that in the memorandum of understanding. Of course, this is not on paper, but his understanding of that memorandum is that the strait would be open for commercial traffic. And just remember the economic impact of Iran having a chokehold over that strait. The Iranians say that's not the case. You know, any ship that passes through the Strait of Hormuz has to go through these approved routes and has to be coordinated with the Iranians. And we're seeing the US Try now to again break that chokehold. And of course we've seen Iran then carry out these horizontal attacks on US Assets in the region. So Kuwait and Bahrain, for example, the uae. And what we have in the end is again this tit for tat strikes and a real question of whether this ceasefire really can be held. I mean, President Trump himself said it's over.

Matt Chorley

Well, literally, while we've just been talking, Donald Trump has posted on his social media website, Truth Social. He says the Hormuz Strait is open in capital letters and will remain open with or without Iran. He says we are reinstating the, in capital letters, the Iranian blockade, so named because it is only stopping Iran ships or customers from entering or leaving. All other countries are fair and open use of the strait. The USA will be from this point forward known as, then he puts in capital letters the guardian of the Hormuz Strait. Close quotes, end capital letters. But as such, and as a matter of capital letters fairness will be reimbursed at the rate of 20% on all cargo shipped for any reason and all cost necessary to do the job providing safety and security. This very volatile section of the world. The process of formation will begin immediately. Thank you for your attention. This matter. President Donald J. Trump. Doesn't that sound. So that's him saying he's going to charge people, charge ships 20% to pay for the US in its new role as the guardian of the Hormuz Strait.

Justin Webb

Complicated, eh? I mean, a lot of the stuff that has prevented traffic in the past going through the strait has actually been as much insurance costs as anything else. And you wonder what that does to insurance costs. In other words, whether there is some sort of a guarantee where people pay and they get the assistance of the US Navy and an insurer is willing to pay to provide a relatively small amount of coverage for a small sum.

Matt Chorley

Well, we'll see what reaction comes to that. True social. Let's move on because we've got more questions. This one message into the BBC from Carla in Southampton. Why are you not reporting on the ice shooting in Houston? Anthony, update our listeners. If they're not aware of what's happening in Houston and Texas.

Anthony Zurcher

Yeah, we are reporting on it and media is reporting on it. There are massive demonstrations going on in Houston following the shooting shooting of an individual, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, who is a Mexican man who had been working as a builder in the United States for 30 years. According to the Trump administration, he was not the intended target. He was in a white van with some other Hispanic looking men and the ICE officer said they thought one of the individuals in the van was a target of an operation. They detained the van and then shot in self defense. The thing to know about this is that there are no body cameras. The officers were not wearing body cameras. We have no images or video. So we have the accounts of the other people in the van who said they did nothing wrong and they were not threatening the officers. And we have the accounts of the federal government which say he was endangering lives so he said type of thing. But the truth is that one man now is dead and that there have been these massive demonstrations. This is part of a, a larger push by ICE to step up arrests and enforcement across the country. So not as high profile as what was happening in Minneapolis over the winter, but this is still a step up in enforcement. Over 10,000 people according to ICE have been detained over a five day period at the end of June. So this is perhaps the biggest flashpoint in one of America's major cities.

Matt Chorley

Thanks for that Anthony. And there are stories on the BBC news website if you want to read more about that. We've had a message in Richard, an email says when can we expect Sarah and or Anthony or indeed sue or indeed Justin I suppose to report on their first ride on Donald Trump's new 747. Anthony, have you got your seat booked?

Anthony Zurcher

Not yet, unfortunately. When I was flying out or back from France a few weeks ago, that was the last flight of the old 747, at least the last flight before he put the new one into rotation. And I'm looking forward to see what it looks like on the inside. I've spoken with some journalists who have flown on it already. They say it is much more luxurious. The journalists have live flatbeds which would have been great for these Trans Pacific and transatlantic flights. A lot more room for Donald Trump to hold his gaggles with reporters because it's just a much, a much bigger aircraft. But I will, I will give you a full report next time I am on it from the inside.

Matt Chorley

And Sumi, this is the plane that he was given by the Qataris, is that right?

Sumi Somaskanda

That's correct. This is the plane that was given by the Qataris and President Trump has been very excited about rolling it out. But remember after the summit in Turkey, the NATO summit in Ankara, President Trump surprisingly decided to take the old Air Force One back. And that's when the New York Times reported that there were security concerns that this plane that was a gift from the Qataris had been retrofitted to meet security needs of the President of the United States. And that those security needs were not basically meeting the standard of what was needed for President Trump to be flying in what could be somewhat hostile airspace, especially with Iranians making threats against him. Right. So President Trump was not happy about the reporting. In fact, those reporters who took part in that story with the New York Times, they have been subpoenaed. And the Department of Justice says it's not about the reporters, it's about their sources who are leaking classified information. But the White House is mad about that reporting.

Matt Chorley

And, in fact, we've got a clip. So this is Donald Trump being asked why he wasn't using his new plane when he was in Ankara last week.

Justin Webb

Why aren't you flying on the new Air Force One?

Donald Trump

It's flying to Europe, to one of the big bases, two or three of the big bases where we can show it to the people. And we'll be going home by normal methods. But we. We have it going to Europe, to a couple of bases, actually, one in particular, but it's going to go to a couple of bases. Stop. So the soldiers can see it, because it's truly magnificent.

Justin Webb

Okay, Matt has now gone away to do his other things, but Sumi is still with me and so is Anthony. And let's focus for a bit longer, shall we, guys, on Lindsey Graham, because he was, as we were saying, a huge figure, but he's also a controversial figure, and he managed to make friends across the aisle. But he also managed to make enemies, didn't he?

Anthony Zurcher

Yeah, because Lindsey Graham went from being such a sharp Trump critic in 2015 and 2016 to a close Trump ally at a time when there were other Republicans who were still trying to be never Trumpers, still trying to draw a line in the sand with the way Trump was changing conservative politics. That definitely drew a lot of criticism, and there's speculation even that Donald Trump had some sort of dirt on Lindsey Graham. He was blackmailing him. Why on earth would would Graham be interested in cozying up to someone who he had said on the campaign trail in 2015, 2016, was a xenophobe, a religious bigot. He had said, most famously in 2016, that if the Republican Party nominated Donald Trump, it would get destroyed and we will deserve it. That one you see repeated over and over again. And while Graham held his tongue through the general election against Hillary Clinton, he didn't vote for Clinton, he didn't vote for Trump. He voted for a guy named Evan McMullen, who was running as an independent candidate. Once Trump became president, Graham definitely changed his tune and became Much closer to Trump, as you say, Justin, that did not rub a lot of people.

Sumi Somaskanda

Well, I actually asked a few of Lindsey Graham's kind of closer associates, his former communications director, for example, about this. About this trajectory of Lindsey Graham, on one hand, being incredibly critical of President Trump and then becoming one of his closest allies. And he said, look, what Lindsey Graham knew more than anyone else was to be able to make a difference, you have to be in the arena. And it was something I heard from another reporter who had covered Lindsey Graham for years and years. He said he understood that you have to be relevant. And I think that really was part of the driving force behind what Lindsey Graham was trying to do in the Senate. He did have those principles that he stuck by, particularly on foreign policy, as. As we've said, really hawkish on Iran and on Ukraine as well, supporting Ukraine. But politically, he understood that the way that the winds had shifted was towards a Republican Party that was captured by President Trump. And that's why we saw him shift his policies and shift his view of President Trump as well, because he wanted to be in the arena.

Justin Webb

But the moment where a lot of Democrats felt that Lindsey Graham was not the person they thought he was, if I could put it like that, was during the hearings for Brett Kavanaugh. So Brett Kavanaugh, Don Trump pick for the Supreme Court, very controversial candidate. He'd been accused of sexual assaults when he was young. This kind of sense that this was a moment where if you have in Lindsey Graham someone who sees the other guy's point of view, the Democrats point of view, then this is the moment to show it. But, my goodness, not only did he not show it, but he really went for the Democrats on the committee while they were considering Kavanaugh. Let's listen again to what he said.

H

If you wanted an FBI investigation, you could have come to us. What you want to do is destroy this guy's life, hold this seat open, and hope you win in 2020. You've said that, not me. You've got nothing to apologize for. When you see Sotomayor and Kagan, tell him that Lindsey said hello because I voted for them. I would never do to them what you've done to this guy. This is the most unethical sham since I've been in politics. And if you really wanted to know the truth, you sure as hell wouldn't have done what you've done to this guy.

Justin Webb

Which really shocked people, because a lot of people really, genuinely thought there was a case, to answer, to put it mildly, with Brett Kavanaugh. Interesting though, wasn't it, Anthony, that he pointed out in that hearing and in that very passionate speech that he had actually voted for those two Supreme Court justices. He mentioned both Democratic picks and he had voted for them. So he's still trying to keep his kind of cross party credentials, as it were, by being pretty tough.

Anthony Zurcher

Yeah. Angrily denouncing the allegations against Kavanaugh made by Christine Blasey Ford, who said that accused Kavanaugh of sexual assault when they were in high school, if everyone remembers. But I also remember during those hearings, the stakes of what those hearings were, that this was conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who a lot of people believed would vote against Roe v. Wade, vote to overturn Roe v. Wade and allow states to ban abortion. He was replacing Anthony Kennedy, who was a conservative justice, but one who had voted in favor of abortion rights in the past. So there was a feeling like this was the line in the sand. And whatever needed to be done to try to stop Kavanaugh had to be done. And the people who were advocating for him felt like they. This was an opportunity, once in a generation opportunity to get a pro life conservative onto that seat. And as it turns out, that was the stakes. Kavanaugh did vote to overturn Roe v. Wade, which is no longer the law of the land. And in large part, it was Lindsey Graham who shored up conservative support around Kavanaugh. He pushed back. And it was one of the main reasons why Kavanaugh ended up being confirmed, albeit by the narrowest of margins.

Sumi Somaskanda

And I would just add that I think that clip really highlighted that bulldog tenacity that a lot of people were reflecting on. Certainly some of the analysts I was speaking to on Sunday after the news of Lindsey Graham's death came out, were pointing to the fact that he fought tooth and nail for what he believed in was right in that moment. And of course, in that clip we hear that, but that at the same time he could very quickly switch to this incredibly sharp sense of humor. And that that was what made him, for politicians on both sides of the aisle, often really fun to work with. Why, they did have warm words for Lindsey Graham after his passing. But clearly that conservative vein that really ran through his policies was reflected in that hearing and of course, in many of the policies we saw Lindsey Graham support in the years after.

Anthony Zurcher

And we have a bit of breaking news now. Donald Trump is on Truth Social. We're talking about Lindsey Graham and the vacant Senate seat. Now, Trump has now endorsed Lindsey Graham's sister Darlene, being named as the interim Senator, for the remaining months before Graham is replaced. His seat was up for election in November. That's kind of an interesting personal story about Lindsey Graham and his sister Darlene. Their parents died when they were very young, within 15 months of each other. Their, their mother and then their father died. Darlene was only 13. Lindsey Graham was in college. He became Darlene's legal guardian and helped essentially raise her through her teenage years. So they have had a very close relationship over the course of their lives. So it would be interesting. We don't know anything about her politics. She has not been a prominent public figure, certainly, although they've appeared together plenty of times. This seems almost more like a symbolic gesture. The real fighting that is going to be going on is to fill that seat in this primary. And there are a lot of ambitious politicians in South Carolina, Republican politicians who would be very interested in becoming the next full term senator from South Carolina.

Justin Webb

Just a thought as well about his age. He was actually in Senate terms, quite young, wasn't he? 71. I mean, I'm thinking I'm not even sure he was over the average, really. Well, he's pretty close to it. But the fact that he's died and the fact that Mitch McConnell is obviously, you know, gravely ill or ill for undisclosed reasons and not actually attending the Senate at the moment and various other, not just senators actually, but us politicians in the House too, are elderly. And the whole kind of sense, not to mention the president himself, of course, just turned 80. This kind of sense, sumi, that there does need to be a new guard coming through. And it's a bipartisan thing, isn't it? But you really do feel it as at the moment, a sort of changing of the guard moment.

Sumi Somaskanda

There's a real energy behind this debate right now in a way that I haven't felt in previous years, that there needs to be a younger class of politicians coming into Congress. And as you said, that's in both chambers. We've seen a number of members of the House of Representatives as well being questioned about their age and their ability to serve. And of course, you mentioned Mitch McConnell. Those questions about his age and his health have been ongoing, especially after in the last few years, we saw those few instances of press conferences where he froze and then people asked, okay, is he healthy? Is he okay? Can he actually perform the duties of being a senator? And I think, you know, that is going to be a driving factor in the midterm elections as well. Can Democrats and Republicans find candidates who are a bit younger, who can reflect more of the agenda that younger Americans have and who might be more in touch with some of their needs and grievances.

Anthony Zurcher

That was the pitch that Graham Platner in Maine, who we talked about in the past multiple times made compared to Susan Collins, who was in is in her 70s, and Janet Mills, his Democratic opponent, who was in her late 70s. But I will say, Justin, the average age of a US senator 64 years old, which I'm sure you agree is the prime of one's life, with plenty of plenty of tread left on the tires. Mitch McConnell is 84, though, and part of it is the seniority thing. The faces in the US Senate, the people who have the big responsible roles because they've been around the longest, are typically the oldest. So when you see Senate hearings, the people who speak first are the ones who are in their 80s, the ones who have all of these big important roles determining what gets passed. They are the more senior members of the senior chamber.

Justin Webb

Righty ho. On that relatively positive note about the life and service of Lindsey Graham and indeed of other US Senators, we should leave it.

Anthony Zurcher

Bye bye bye.

Justin Webb

Thank you for answering our call and continuing to send your messages to us. We do read every single one. We love to hear your thoughts, your feedback and questions as well. So please do keep them coming. You can send us an email. It's americastbc.co.uk the WhatsApp is 443-301-239480 and you can get involved in the AmericasT Discord server. The link to that is in the description and don't forget to subscribe. That way you will never miss an episode. Until next time. Bye.

Asma Khalid

How has America shaped the world? I'm Asma Khalid, host of the Global Story podcast from the BBC. As the United States marks its 250 year anniversary, we've been exploring the surprising and often hidden ways the US has shaped the modern world. And today on the show we answer your questions about this moment and what to expect in the years to come. From the BBC, it's the United States at 2:50. Listen to the Global Story on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts.

Matt Chorley

What do Beatles member Sir Paul McCartney,

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Matt Chorley

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That's Good Bad Billionaire from the BBC World Service.

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