Graham's Final Mission? Trump Backs Hard-Hitting Russia Sanctions Package

Apparently the late Senator Lindsey Graham's hawkish neocon legacy will continue to reverberate from beyond the grave. The 71-year old lawmaker died Saturday night "from a brief and sudden illness" - immediately after returning from Ukraine where he had toured drone and weapons factories.

President Trump is expected to support the passage of a new bipartisan Russia sanctions package that was long spearheaded by Graham, according to CNN citing a White House official.

via Associated Press

The South Carolina senator spent years trying to finally advance it across the finish line, but the Trump administration entered the White House loudly pushing diplomacy with Moscow and the idea that a swift end to the over four-year long war could be achieved by Trump's direct mediation and negotiating prowess. The policy reached an apex with the Trumpm-Putin Alaska summit, but failed to take off from there.

Instead, the world is currently witnessing the war's biggest escalatory phase in years, especially given the nightly major Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian energy sites and infrastructure. Russia's aerial bombardment of Ukrainian cities, including on the capital, has in turn stepped up.

The sanctions legislation would be America's toughest anti-Moscow move yet, greatly expanding on the original Sanctioning Russia Act:

Rather than requiring a presidential determin