Sen. Lindsey Graham’s, R-S.C., sudden death from an undisclosed illness has triggered a two-pronged approach to replace him, and President Donald Trump will likely be a focal point in the process.

Graham’s passing overnight comes at a time when Republicans in the upper chamber need every vote they can get. The Senate GOP now holds a 52-seat majority, and with the timetable for Sen. Mitch McConnell’s, R-Ky., absence still unclear, that majority is now effectively 51 votes.

That will up the pressure, and drama, to find a replacement for the longtime South Carolina lawmaker.

LINDSEY GRAHAM, SOUTH CAROLINA SENATOR WHO ROSE FROM SMALL-TOWN ROOTS TO GOP POWER BROKER, DIES AT 71

Trump, during an appearance on NBC’s «Meet the Press» on Sunday, said, «I have somebody that I think would be great.»

«But I don’t want to say it now because it’s just, it’s too soon with Lindsey,» Trump said. «I don’t wanna even talk about anybody, but I do have somebody that I think is really good.»

It’s a process guided by the Constitution and state law. The first step will require South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster, a Republican, to appoint a replacement for Graham on a temporary basis.

McMaster, a close ally of Trump, can appoint a temporary replacement as soon as he wants. That pick will serve until the next special or general election.

MCCONNELL FACES FRESH CALLS TO COME CLEAN ABOUT HEALTH ISSUES

Fox News Digital did not immediately hear back from McMaster’s office on when he would make the announcement, or who he was considering for the seat.

Graham was already in-cycle running for a fifth term in the upper chamber, and he easily cruised to a primary victory early last month. That means that whoever McMaster taps would serve until the end of the year to finish off the remainder of Graham’s fourth term.

The second prong is finding his long-term successor.

The candidate filing period for that special election to win the GOP nomination opens July 21. The election is slated for Aug. 11, according to South Carolina law.

That race could see several familiar faces in South Carolina GOP politics jumping in, including McMaster himself, who is termed out as governor.

TRUMP’S ENDORSEMENT POWER FACES ANOTHER GOP TEST IN SOUTH CAROLINA AFTER ALAN WILSON ADVANCES

Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., departs the U.S. Capitol after a series of House votes on funding for Homeland Security and a War Powers resolution on Iran on March 5, 2026, in Washington, D.C. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

Trump heaped praise on McMaster, noting that he endorsed his first bid for the White House in 2016.

«Henry’s been a great governor, you know now he’s termed out, but he’s going to do the right thing,» Trump said. «I think Henry will be fantastic.»

There are six members of South Carolina’s GOP congressional delegation who could toss their hats into the mix. Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., who recently lost a bid for the GOP gubernatorial nomination, is eyeing jumping into the special election.

A person familiar with Mace’s plans told Fox News Digital, «Congresswoman Mace is considering a bid to run.»

Then there’s Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., the longest-serving Republican member of the Palmetto State’s delegation. He quickly snuffed speculation about whether he’d leap into the fray.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

«I was grateful to speak with President Trump today reminiscing about our mutual friend, Senator Lindsey Graham,» Wilson said on X. «I assured him my goal is to remain in the House to keep his two-vote majority for the American people!!!»

Then there’s the remaining four: South Carolina Republican Reps. Ralph Norman, who also lost out on scoring the GOP nomination for governor, Russell Fry, William Timmons and Sheri Biggs, none of whom, so far, have signaled that they would jump into the battle for Graham’s seat.

Meanwhile, Pamela Evette, who Trump endorsed in the governor’s race but ultimately lost to GOP nominee and South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson, could also be in the mix.

Fox News Digital did not immediately receive responses to requests for comment from each possible contender.

Graham era cercano a Trump

Lindsey Graham murió a los 71 años. Foto: Reuters

Lindsey Graham con Zelenski, durante un encuentro en Ucrania en junio de este año. Foto: Reuters

La política exterior fue un foco para Graham

Graham fue presidente de los comités de Presupuesto y Judicial del Senado

Graham con Trump, en una conferencia de 2019. Foto: Reuters

New German crime figures and an expanding investigation into an alleged sexual exploitation of teenage girls near the Nuremberg, Germany, central railway station are intensifying a broader European battle over migration, integration and whether officials have been too reluctant to confront patterns of organized sexual abuse.

Germany recorded 751 cases categorized as group rapes in 2025, according to the federal government’s response to a parliamentary inquiry submitted by the opposition Alternative für Deutschland party. All parties represented in the Bundestag German federal parliament may submit formal questions requiring government responses, a key tool through which opposition lawmakers scrutinize federal policy.

Police identified 1,087 suspects in the cases, including 509 German citizens and 578 non-German nationals. Syrians were the largest foreign-national group, with 110 suspects, followed by Afghans with 64, Iraqis with 46 and Turks with 44.

ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT SOCCER COACH WHO USED ALCOHOL AND DRUGS TO SEXUALLY ABUSE KIDS LEARNS FATE

The government cautioned that «group rape» is not a separate criminal offense or standardized police category. Officials generated the figures by filtering recorded rape cases in which suspects were listed as not acting alone. The numbers represent suspects identified during police investigations, not people convicted in court.

The figures emerged as investigators in Nuremberg, Germany, pursued allegations that vulnerable girls were deliberately drawn into a network involving affection, gifts, narcotics and sexual exploitation.

Bavarian police said in May that men operating around the city’s main railway station allegedly approached girls from unstable or vulnerable backgrounds, initially offering them attention, clothing or cosmetics. Investigators said some were later given hard drugs, including crystal meth, and that their resulting dependency was allegedly exploited to obtain sexual acts or other «services.»

STEPDAD ACCUSED OF SEX ASSAULT AS COPS WIDEN PROBE INTO GIRL’S LETHAL BENADRYL INGREDIENT DOSE

Protesters gather before a party convention of Alternative for Germany, or AfD in Erfurt, Germany, July 4, 2026. (Ebrahim Noroozi/The Associated Press )

The investigation, known as EKO Kajal, has continued to expand. Police said Tuesday that ten suspects were being held in pretrial detention in cases involving alleged sexual offenses against girls and young women and the distribution of drugs or medication to minors.

In the latest arrests, police alleged that a 21-year-old Syrian man raped two girls, ages 15 and 18, in a Nuremberg, Germany, apartment after they were given narcotics by a 40-year-old Syrian man. Both men were detained, but the accusations remain allegations and have not been adjudicated. 

Emma Schubart, a research fellow at the London-based Henry Jackson Society, told Fox News Digital that the Nuremberg, Germany, allegations bear similarities to grooming-gang cases uncovered in Britain, where girls were plied with drugs and alcohol before being repeatedly abused by groups of men.

«It’s a severe failure in both countries,» Schubart said, arguing that the problem begins with insufficient screening and continues with inadequate integration after migrants arrive.

«The first step that both authorities in the U.K. and in Germany really are not doing is screening migrants effectively,» she said. «But then, once the migrants are already here, the integration policy is completely lacking.»

Schubart said the isolation of some immigrant communities can contribute to «ghettoization» and create environments in which criminal networks operate with limited scrutiny or cooperation with authorities.

She also challenged the argument that disparities in some sexual-offense statistics can be explained primarily by poverty.

POLYGAMOUS SECT LEADER CONVICTED ON STATE CHARGES AFTER GIRLS FOUND IN UNVENTILATED TRAILER

A supporter wearing a plastic policeman’s helmet and holding fake money criticises the way the police dealt with the grooming gang scandal on Jan. 29, 2022, in Telford, England. (Martin Pope/Getty Images)

«Socioeconomic factors matter, but they absolutely do not fully explain the disparities,» Schubart said. «Native Germans from similar socioeconomic backgrounds absolutely do not show equivalent rates in group sexual offending.»

Schubart said she viewed the apparent intersection between drugs and sexual exploitation as an especially important parallel with Britain.

«In the U.K. and in Germany, it’s a very similar pattern where it’s basically drug trafficking that also involves sex trafficking,» she said. «These drug-trafficking networks and cells operate across the country, not just in those cities where we see the crimes playing out.»

Britain has spent years reckoning with grooming scandals in places including Rotherham, Rochdale, Telford and Oxford, England, where official reviews found that police, social workers and local authorities repeatedly missed or ignored evidence that vulnerable children were being systematically abused.

Baroness Louise Casey’s national audit, published by the British government in June 2025, concluded that inconsistent definitions, incomplete records and failures to collect ethnicity data made it impossible to establish the full national scale of group-based child sexual exploitation. It nevertheless found evidence of the disproportionate representation of Pakistani-heritage suspects in some local datasets and cases, while warning against extrapolating those findings to the entire country.

The British government later backed an independent inquiry intended to examine failures or obstruction by police, councils and other public bodies in relevant local areas.

Schubart argued that officials in both countries have sometimes avoided discussing offenders’ backgrounds out of concern that doing so could damage relations with minority communities.

«In the U.K., it’s usually the phrase ‘community relations,’» she said. «There’s a huge effort to not threaten community relations.»

Germany’s ifo Institute reported in February 2025 that its analysis of district-level police data from 2018 through 2023 found no correlation between a rising foreign population and local crime rates, including in areas receiving more refugees.  

«We find no correlation between an increasing share of foreigners in a district and the local crime rate,» ifo researcher Jean-Victor Alipour said when the findings were released. «The same applies in particular to refugees.» Researchers said differences in suspect rates can be influenced by age, sex, urban concentration and other demographic factors.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

A woman poses with a sign as members of the public queue to enter a council meeting during a protest calling for justice for victims of sexual abuse and grooming gangs, outside the council offices at City Centre on Jan. 20, 2025, in Oldham, England. (Anthony Devlin/Getty Images)

Germany’s Syrian population also plays a significant role in sectors facing severe labor shortages. 

The German Medical Association reported that 7,959 Syrian citizens were working as physicians in Germany at the end of 2025, making Syrians the country’s largest group of foreign doctors.

The competing evidence presents European governments with a difficult test: investigating organized exploitation and demographic patterns without political hesitation, while avoiding the suggestion that hundreds of suspects define millions of immigrants.