An ongoing documentary project about Lindsey Graham’s life reveals the late senator privately casting doubt on whether President Donald Trump’s handpicked Middle East negotiators could deliver an end to the war in Iran.
The Wall Street Journal reports that documentary filmmaker Alex Holder has amassed hundreds of hours of footage of Graham over the past four years for an ongoing project currently titled Lindsey’s Game.
One of the moments reportedly captured on camera shows Graham speaking in March with Jake Sullivan, who served as national security adviser under President Joe Biden, about the challenges of working on Middle East negotiations—specifically voicing concerns about two of Trump’s most trusted envoys.
“I can’t do it with Jared, and I can’t do it with Witkoff. They’re just too conflicted,” Graham told Sullivan, referring to Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, 45, and longtime confidant Steve Witkoff, 69, both of whom have been entrusted with sensitive diplomacy tied to the U.S. war with Iran.
“It’s gotta be Rubio,” Graham added, a notable remark from a senator who had pushed for the Iran war, suggesting he believed Secretary of State Marco Rubio, 55, was better equipped to handle the negotiations.
Since the war began on Feb. 28, Kushner, whose official title is Special Envoy for Peace, and Witkoff, the Special Envoy to the Middle East, have served as Trump’s key negotiators in talks with Iran, but repeated rounds of talks have failed to deliver a deal, and the war has dragged on.
Responding to a request for comment, a White House official told The Wall Street Journal that “Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are excellent dealmakers whose results speak for themselves,” defending the pair’s role in the negotiations.
In the March footage, Graham told Sullivan that he believed the war would end within “three to four weeks.” Another clip filmed weeks before his death shows the late senator expressing frustration over Trump’s June memorandum of understanding with Iran, which the president has since declared void.
“He’s letting this thing slip away,” Graham is heard saying, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The late senator, who died suddenly on July 11 from a rare cardiovascular condition, had a complicated history with Trump, 80. The pair first crossed paths as rivals during the 2016 Republican presidential primary, when Graham branded Trump a “jackass,” a “race-baiting, xenophobic religious bigot,” and warned that he would destroy the Republican Party.
But after Trump’s victory, the two were persuaded to sit down for a “make-up” lunch in March 2017, according to New York magazine, and by 2018, the former rivals had become close allies, regularly appearing together and bonding over rounds of golf at Trump’s courses.
Graham’s doubts about Trump’s chosen negotiators for the increasingly unpopular war in Iran have not been confined to him, with other conservatives raising similar concerns.
Earlier this month, Fox News host Brian Kilmeade joined the growing chorus of criticism over Trump’s Iran negotiating team, calling on the president to pull Kushner and Witkoff from the stalled talks.
“They’re business guys. They have not been effective in Ukraine, not been effective in Gaza. They have not been effective in this. They can’t have three portfolios to begin with. We have a State Department for a reason,” Kilmeade said, also arguing that Rubio was better equipped to lead the negotiations.
Trump himself has since expressed frustration with the process. After declaring the June preliminary deal over, the president said Kushner and Witkoff would continue talks, but described negotiations with Iran as “just a waste of time.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.
