title: Bell's palsy

text: The facial nerve controls a number of functions, such as blinking and closing the eyes, smiling, frowning, lacrimation, salivation, flaring nostrils and raising eyebrows. It also carries taste sensations from the anterior two-thirds of the tongue, through the chorda tympani nerve (a branch of the facial nerve). Because of this, people with Bell's palsy may present with loss of taste sensation in the anterior of the tongue on the affected side.


title: Bell's palsy

text: Although the facial nerve innervates the stapedius muscle of the middle ear (through the tympanic branch), sound sensitivity, causing normal sounds to be perceived as very loud (hyperacusis), and dysacusis are possible but hardly ever clinically evident.


title: Bell's palsy

text: Although defined as a mononeuritis (involving only one nerve), people diagnosed with Bell's palsy may have "myriad neurological symptoms" including "facial tingling, moderate or severe headache/neck pain, memory problems, balance problems, ipsilateral limb paresthesias, ipsilateral limb weakness, and a sense of clumsiness" that are "unexplained by facial nerve dysfunction".


title: Bell's palsy

text: The cause of Bell's palsy is unknown. Risk factors include diabetes, a recent upper respiratory tract infection, and pregnancy.


title: Bell's palsy

text: Some viruses are thought to establish a persistent (or latent) infection without symptoms, e.g., the varicella zoster virus and the Epstein–Barr virus, both of the herpes family. Reactivation of an existing (dormant) viral infection has been suggested as a cause of acute Bell's palsy. As the facial nerve swells and becomes inflamed in reaction to the infection, it causes pressure within the Fallopian canal, resulting in the restriction of blood and oxygen to the nerve cells. Other viruses and bacteria that have been linked to the development of Bell's palsy include HIV, sarcoidosis and Lyme Disease. This new activation could be triggered by trauma, environmental factors, and metabolic or emotional disorders.


title: Bell's palsy

text: Familial inheritance has been found in 4–14% of cases. There may also be an association with migraines.


title: Bell's palsy

text: In December 2020, the U.S. FDA recommended that recipients of the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines should be monitored for symptoms of Bell's palsy after several cases were reported among clinical trial participants, though the data were not sufficient to determine a causal link.


title: Bell's palsy

text: A meta-analysis of genome-wide association study (GWAS) identified the first unequivocal association with Bell's palsy.


title: Bell's palsy

text: Bell's palsy is the result of a malfunction of the facial nerve (cranial nerve VII), which controls the muscles of the face. Facial palsy is typified by inability to move the muscles of facial expression. The paralysis is of the infranuclear/lower motor neuron type.


title: Bell's palsy

text: It is thought that as a result of inflammation of the facial nerve, pressure is produced on the nerve where it exits the skull within its bony canal (the stylomastoid foramen), blocking the transmission of neural signals or damaging the nerve. Patients with facial palsy for which an underlying cause can be found are not considered to have Bell's palsy "per se". Possible causes of facial paralysis include tumor, meningitis, stroke, diabetes mellitus, head trauma and inflammatory diseases of the cranial nerves (sarcoidosis, brucellosis, etc.). In these conditions, the neurologic findings are rarely restricted to the facial nerve. Babies can be born with facial palsy. In a few cases, bilateral facial palsy has been associated with acute HIV infection.


title: Bell's palsy

text: In some research, the herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) has been identified in a majority of cases diagnosed as Bell's palsy through endoneurial fluid sampling. Other research, however, identified, out of a total of 176 cases diagnosed as Bell's palsy, HSV-1 in 31 cases (18%) and herpes zoster in 45 cases (26%).


title: Bell's palsy

text: In addition, HSV-1 infection is associated with demyelination of nerves. This nerve damage mechanism is different from the above-mentioned—that edema, swelling and compression of the nerve in the narrow bone canal is responsible for nerve damage. Demyelination may not even be directly caused by the virus, but by an unknown immune response.


title: Bell's palsy

text: Bell's palsy is a diagnosis of exclusion, meaning it is diagnosed by elimination of other reasonable possibilities. By definition, no specific cause can be determined. There are no routine lab or imaging tests required to make the diagnosis. The degree of nerve damage can be assessed using the House-Brackmann score.


title: Bell's palsy

text: One study found that 45% of patients are not referred to a specialist, which suggests that Bell's palsy is considered by physicians to be a straightforward diagnosis that is easy to manage.


title: Bell's palsy

text: Other conditions that can cause similar symptoms include herpes zoster, Lyme disease, sarcoidosis, stroke, and brain tumors.


title: Bell's palsy

text: Once the facial paralysis sets in, many people may mistake it as a symptom of a stroke; however, there are a few subtle differences. A stroke will usually cause a few additional symptoms, such as numbness or weakness in the arms and legs. And unlike Bell's palsy, a stroke will usually let patients control the upper part of their faces. A person with a stroke will usually have some wrinkling of their forehead.


title: Bell's palsy

text: In areas where Lyme disease is common, it accounts for about 25% of cases of facial palsy. In the U.S., Lyme is most common in the New England and Mid-Atlantic states and parts of Wisconsin and Minnesota. The first sign of about 80% of Lyme infections, typically one or two weeks after a tick bite, is usually an expanding rash that may be accompanied by headaches, body aches, fatigue, or fever. In up to 10–15% of Lyme infections, facial palsy appears several weeks later, and may be the first sign of infection that is noticed as the Lyme rash typically does not itch and is not painful. The likelihood that the facial palsy is caused by Lyme disease should be estimated, based on recent history of outdoor activities in likely tick habitats during warmer months, recent history of rash or symptoms such as headache and fever, and whether the palsy affects both sides of the face (much more common in Lyme than in Bell's palsy). If that likelihood is more than negligible, a serological test for Lyme disease should be performed, and if it exceeds 10%, empiric therapy with antibiotics should be initiated, without corticosteroids, and reevaluated upon completion of laboratory tests for Lyme disease. Corticosteroids have been found to harm outcomes for facial palsy caused by Lyme disease.


title: Bell's palsy

text: One disease that may be difficult to exclude in the differential diagnosis is involvement of the facial nerve in infections with the herpes zoster virus. The major differences in this condition are the presence of small blisters, or "vesicles", on the external ear, significant pain in the jaw, ear, face and/or neck and hearing disturbances, but these findings may occasionally be lacking (zoster sine herpete). Reactivation of existing herpes zoster infection leading to facial paralysis in a Bell's palsy type pattern is known as Ramsay Hunt syndrome type 2. The prognosis for Bell's palsy patients is generally much better than for Ramsay Hunt syndrome type 2 patients.


title: Bell's palsy

text: Steroids have been shown to be effective at improving recovery in Bell's palsy while antivirals have not. In those who are unable to close their eyes, eye protective measures are required. Management during pregnancy is similar to management in the non-pregnant.


title: Bell's palsy

text: Corticosteroids such as prednisone improve recovery at 6 months and are thus recommended. Early treatment (within 3 days after the onset) is necessary for benefit with a 14% greater probability of recovery.


title: Bell's palsy

text: One review found that antivirals (such as aciclovir) are ineffective in improving recovery from Bell's palsy beyond steroids alone in mild to moderate disease. Another review found a benefit when combined with corticosteroids but stated the evidence was not very good to support this conclusion.


title: Bell's palsy

text: In severe disease it is also unclear. One 2015 review found no effect regardless of severity. Another review found a small benefit when added to steroids.


title: Bell's palsy

text: They are commonly prescribed due to a theoretical link between Bell's palsy and the herpes simplex and varicella zoster virus. There is still the possibility that they might result in a benefit less than 7% as this has not been ruled out.


title: Bell's palsy

text: When Bell's palsy affects the blink reflex and stops the eye from closing completely, frequent use of tear-like eye drops or eye ointments is recommended during the day and protecting the eyes with patches or taping them shut is recommended for sleep and rest periods.


title: Bell's palsy

text: Physiotherapy can be beneficial to some individuals with Bell's palsy as it helps to maintain muscle tone of the affected facial muscles and stimulate the facial nerve. It is important that muscle re-education exercises and soft tissue techniques be implemented prior to recovery in order to help prevent permanent contractures of the paralyzed facial muscles. To reduce pain, heat can be applied to the affected side of the face. There is no high quality evidence to support the role of electrical stimulation for Bell's palsy.


title: Bell's palsy

text: Surgery may be able to improve outcomes in facial nerve palsy that has not recovered. A number of different techniques exist. Smile surgery or smile reconstruction is a surgical procedure that may restore the smile for people with facial nerve paralysis. Adverse effects include hearing loss which occurs in 3–15% of people. A Cochrane review (updated in 2021), after reviewing applicable randomized and quasi-randomized controlled trials was unable to determine if early surgery is beneficial or harmful. As of 2007 the American Academy of Neurology did not recommend surgical decompression.


title: Bell's palsy

text: The efficacy of acupuncture remains unknown because the available studies are of low quality (poor primary study design or inadequate reporting practices). There is very tentative evidence for hyperbaric oxygen therapy in severe disease.


title: Bell's palsy

text: Most people with Bell's palsy start to regain normal facial function within 3 weeks—even those who do not receive treatment. In a 1982 study, when no treatment was available, of 1,011 patients, 85% showed first signs of recovery within 3 weeks after onset. For the other 15%, recovery occurred 3–6 months later.


title: Bell's palsy

text: After a follow-up of at least one year or until restoration, complete recovery had occurred in more than two-thirds (71%) of all patients. Recovery was judged moderate in 12% and poor in only 4% of patients. Another study found that incomplete palsies disappear entirely, nearly always in the course of one month. The patients who regain movement within the first two weeks nearly always remit entirely. When remission does not occur until the third week or later, a significantly greater part of the patients develop sequelae. A third study found a better prognosis for young patients, aged below 10 years old, while the patients over 61 years old presented a worse prognosis.


title: Bell's palsy

text: Major possible complications of the condition are chronic loss of taste (ageusia), chronic facial spasm, facial pain and corneal infections. Another complication can occur in case of incomplete or erroneous regeneration of the damaged facial nerve. The nerve can be thought of as a bundle of smaller individual nerve connections that branch out to their proper destinations. During regrowth, nerves are generally able to track the original path to the right destination—but some nerves may sidetrack leading to a condition known as synkinesis. For instance, regrowth of nerves controlling muscles attached to the eye may sidetrack and also regrow connections reaching the muscles of the mouth. In this way, movement of one also affects the other. For example, when the person closes the eye, the corner of the mouth lifts involuntarily.


title: Bell's palsy

text: Around 9% of people have some sort of ongoing problems after Bell's palsy, typically the synkinesis already discussed, or spasm, contracture, tinnitus or hearing loss during facial movement or crocodile-tear syndrome. This is also called gustatolacrimal reflex or Bogorad's syndrome and results in shedding tears while eating. This is thought to be due to faulty regeneration of the facial nerve, a branch of which controls the lacrimal and salivary glands. Gustatorial sweating can also occur.


title: Bell's palsy

text: The number of new cases of Bell's palsy ranges from about one to four cases per 10,000 population per year. The rate increases with age. Bell's palsy affects about 40,000 people in the United States every year. It affects approximately 1 person in 65 during a lifetime.


title: Bell's palsy

text: A range of annual incidence rates have been reported in the literature: 15, 24, and 25–53 (all rates per 100,000 population per year). Bell's palsy is not a reportable disease, and there are no established registries for people with this diagnosis, which complicates precise estimation.


title: Bell's palsy

text: About 40,000 people are affected by Bell's Palsy in the United States every year. It can affect anyone of any gender and age, but its incidence seems to be highest in those in the 15- to 45-year-old age group.


title: Bell's palsy

text: The Persian physician Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi (865–925) detailed the first known description of peripheral and central facial palsy.


title: Bell's palsy

text: Cornelis Stalpart van der Wiel (1620–1702) in 1683 gave an account of Bell's palsy and credited the Persian physician Ibn Sina (980–1037) for describing this condition before him. James Douglas (1675–1742) and Nicolaus Anton Friedreich (1761–1836) also described it.


title: Bell's palsy

text: Scottish neurophysiologist Sir Charles Bell read his paper to the Royal Society of London on July 12, 1821, describing the role of the facial nerve. He became the first to detail the neuroanatomical basis of facial paralysis. Since then, idiopathic peripheral facial paralysis has been referred to as Bell's palsy, named after him.


title: Bell's palsy

text: A notable person with Bell's palsy is former Prime Minister of Canada Jean Chrétien. During the 1993 Canadian federal election, Chrétien's first as leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, the opposition Progressive Conservative Party of Canada ran an attack ad in which voice actors criticized him over images that seemed to highlight his abnormal facial expressions. The ad was interpreted as an attack on Chrétien's physical appearance and garnered widespread anger among the public, while Chrétien used the ad to make himself more sympathetic to voters. The ad had the adverse effect of increasing Chrétien's lead in the polls and the subsequent backlash clinched the election for the Liberals, which the party won in a landslide.


title: Lindsey Graham

text: Lindsey Olin Graham (born July 9, 1955) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the senior United States senator from South Carolina, a seat he has held since 2003. A member of the Republican Party, Graham chaired the Senate Committee on the Judiciary from 2019 to 2021.


title: Lindsey Graham

text: A native of Central, South Carolina, Graham received his Juris Doctor degree from the University of South Carolina School of Law in 1981. Most of his active duty during his military service happened from 1982 to 1988, when he served with the Judge Advocate General's Corps in the United States Air Force, as a defense attorney and then with the Air Force's chief prosecutor in Europe, based in West Germany. Later his entire service in the U.S. Air Force Reserve ran concurrently with his congressional career. He was awarded a Bronze Star Medal for meritorious service in 2014 and held the rank of colonel.


title: Lindsey Graham

text: Graham worked as a lawyer in private practice before serving one term in the South Carolina House of Representatives from 1993 to 1995. He served four terms in the United States House of Representatives for South Carolina's 3rd congressional district from 1995 to 2003. In 2002, Graham won the U.S. Senate seat vacated by retiring Republican incumbent Strom Thurmond. He was reelected to a fourth term in 2020. In the Senate Graham advocates for strong national defense and aggressive interventionist foreign policy. Initially, he was known for his willingness to be bipartisan and work with Democrats on issues like campaign finance reform, a ban on waterboarding, cap and trade, immigration reform, and judicial nominees. He has criticized the Tea Party movement, arguing for a more inclusive Republican Party.


title: Lindsey Graham

text: Graham sought the Republican nomination for president between June and December 2015, dropping out before the 2016 Republican primaries began. He was an outspoken critic of Donald Trump's 2016 candidacy and repeatedly said he did not support Trump; in particular, he took issue with Trump's comments on Graham's close friend, Senator John McCain. After a March 2017 meeting with Trump, Graham became a staunch ally of his, often issuing public statements in his defense. His reversal caught both parties by surprise and sparked media speculation. He became chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee in January 2019, and led the U.S. Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Amy Coney Barrett, who was confirmed in October 2020.


title: Lindsey Graham

text: Lindsey Olin Graham was born in Central, South Carolina, where his parents, Millie (Walters) and Florence James "F.J." Graham, ran a restaurant/bar/pool hall/liquor store, the Sanitary Cafe. His family is of Scots-Irish descent. After graduating from D. W. Daniel High School, Graham became the first member of his family to attend college, and joined the Reserve Officers' Training Corps. When he was 21, his mother died of Hodgkin's lymphoma, aged 52, and his father died 15 months later of a heart attack, aged 69. Because his then-13-year-old sister was left orphaned, the service allowed Graham to attend the University of South Carolina in Columbia so he could remain near home as his sister's legal guardian. During his studies, he became a member of the Pi Kappa Phi social fraternity.


title: Lindsey Graham

text: He graduated from the University of South Carolina with a B.A. in psychology in 1977, and from the University of South Carolina School of Law with a J.D. in 1981.


title: Lindsey Graham

text: Upon graduating from the University of South Carolina School of Law, Graham was commissioned as an officer in the Judge Advocate General's Corps (JAG Corps) in the United States Air Force in 1982 and began active duty that year. His duty began with a stint as an Air Force defense attorney, after which he was transferred to Rhein-Main Air Base in Frankfurt, Germany, where from 1984 to 1988 he was the Air Force's chief prosecutor in Europe. In 1984, as he was defending an Air Force pilot accused of using marijuana, he was featured in an episode of "60 Minutes" that exposed the Air Force's defective drug-testing procedures. After his service in Europe, he returned to South Carolina, leaving active duty in 1989 and entering private practice as a lawyer. He served as assistant county attorney for Oconee County from 1988 to 1992 and city attorney for Central from 1990 to 1994.


title: Lindsey Graham

text: After leaving the Air Force, Graham joined the South Carolina Air National Guard in 1989, where he served until 1995, then joining the U.S. Air Force Reserve.


title: Lindsey Graham

text: During the 1990–91 Gulf War, Graham was recalled to active duty, serving as a judge advocate at McEntire Air National Guard Station in Eastover, South Carolina, where he helped brief departing pilots on the laws of war. In 1998, the Capitol Hill daily newspaper "The Hill" contended that Graham was describing himself on his website as an Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm veteran. Graham responded: "I have not told anybody I'm a combatant. I'm not a war hero, and never said I was. ... If I have lied about my military record, I'm not fit to serve in Congress", further noting that he "never deployed".


title: Lindsey Graham

text: In 1998, Graham was promoted to lieutenant colonel. In 2004, he received his promotion to colonel in the U.S. Air Force Reserve at a White House ceremony officiated by President George W. Bush. That year, a lower court determined that Graham's service as a military judge while a sitting member of the Senate was acceptable. In 2006, the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces set aside the lower court's ruling after concluding it was improper for Graham to serve as a military judge.


title: Lindsey Graham

text: In 2007, Graham served in Iraq as a reservist on active duty for a short period in April and for two weeks in August, where he worked on detainee and rule-of-law issues. He also served in Afghanistan during the August 2009 Senate recess. He was then assigned as a senior instructor at the Judge Advocate General's School, though he never went.


title: Lindsey Graham

text: In 2014, Graham received a Bronze Star medal for meritorious service as a senior legal adviser to the Air Force in Iraq and Afghanistan from August 2009 to July 2014, overseeing the detention of military prisoners. In 2015, he retired at his last rank of Colonel from the Air Force with over 33 total years of service, after reaching the statutory retirement age of 60 for his rank. Graham earned points toward a military pension but was unpaid as an Air Force officer while a congressman and senator as he was ineligible for a military paycheck during his time in federal government service.


title: Lindsey Graham

text: In 1992, Graham was elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives from the 2nd district, in Oconee County. He defeated Democratic incumbent Lowell W. Ross by 60% to 40% and served one term, from 1993 to 1995.


title: Lindsey Graham

text: In 1994, 20-year incumbent Democratic U.S. Congressman Butler Derrick of South Carolina's northwestern-based 3rd congressional district decided to retire. Graham ran to succeed him and, with Republican U.S. Senator Strom Thurmond campaigning on his behalf, won the Republican primary with 52% of the vote, defeating Bob Cantrell (33%) and Ed Allgood (15%). In the general election, Graham defeated Democratic State Senator James Bryan Jr., 60% to 40%. As a part of that year's Republican Revolution, Graham became the first Republican to represent the district since 1877.


title: Lindsey Graham

text: In 1996, he was challenged by Debbie Dorn, the niece of Butler Derrick and daughter of Derrick's predecessor, 13-term Democratic Congressman William Jennings Bryan Dorn. Graham was reelected, defeating Dorn 60% to 40%. In 1998, he was reelected to a third term unopposed. In 2000, he was reelected to a fourth term, defeating Democratic nominee George Brightharp, 68% to 30%.


title: Lindsey Graham

text: In November 1997, Graham was one of 18 House Republicans to co-sponsor a resolution by Bob Barr that sought to launch an impeachment inquiry into President Bill Clinton. The resolution did not specify any charges or allegations. This was an early effort to impeach Clinton, predating the eruption of the Clinton–Lewinsky scandal. The eruption of that scandal ultimately led to a more serious effort to impeach Clinton in 1998. On October 8, 1998, Graham voted in favor of legislation to open an impeachment inquiry. He was a member of the Judiciary Committee, which conducted the inquiry. In both the Judiciary Committee vote on forwarding proposed articles of impeachment, and the full House vote on the proposed articles of impeachment, Graham voted for three of the four proposed articles of impeachment. He voted against the second count of perjury in the Paula Jones case. This made him the only Republican on the Judiciary Committee to vote against any of the proposed articles of impeachment. During the inquiry, Graham asked, "Is this Watergate or Peyton Place?" The House passed two of the impeachment articles. Graham served as an House impeachment manager in the impeachment trial.


title: Lindsey Graham

text: In 2002, longtime U.S. Senator Strom Thurmond decided to retire. Graham ran to succeed him and won the Republican primary unopposed. In the general election, he defeated Democratic nominee Alex Sanders, the former President of the College of Charleston and former Chief Judge of the South Carolina Court of Appeals, 600,010 votes (54%) to 487,359 (44%). Graham thus became South Carolina's first new U.S. senator since Fritz Hollings in 1966.


title: Lindsey Graham

text: When Graham ran for a second term in 2008, he was challenged in the Republican primary by National Executive Committeeman of the South Carolina Republican Party, Buddy Witherspoon. Graham defeated him by 186,398 votes (66.82%) to 92,547 (33.18%), winning all but one of South Carolina's 46 counties. He then defeated the Democratic nominee, pilot and engineer Bob Conley, in the general election, 1,076,534 votes (57.53%) to 790,621 (42.25%), having outspent Conley by $6.6 million to $15,000.


title: Lindsey Graham

text: Of all the Republican senators up for reelection in 2014, Graham was considered one of the most vulnerable to a primary challenge, largely due to his low approval ratings and reputation for working with and compromising with Democrats. He expected a primary challenge from conservative activists, including the Tea Party movement, and Chris Chocola, President of the Club for Growth, indicated that his organization would support a primary challenge if an acceptable standard-bearer emerged.


title: Lindsey Graham

text: But a serious challenger to Graham failed to emerge and he was widely viewed as likely to win, which has been ascribed to his "deft maneuvering" and "aggressive" response to the challenge. He befriended potential opponents from the state's congressional delegation and helped them with fundraising and securing their preferred committee assignments; he assembled a "daunting multi-million-dollar political operation" dubbed the "Graham machine" that built six regional offices across the state and enlisted the support of thousands of paid staffers and volunteers, including over 5,000 precinct captains; he assembled a "staggering" campaign war chest and "blanketed" the state with positive ads; he focused on constituent services and local issues; and he refused to "pander" to the Tea Party supporters, instead confronting them head-on, arguing that the Republican Party needed to be more inclusive.


title: Lindsey Graham

text: In the run-up to the Republican primary, Graham's approval rating improved. According to a February 2013 Winthrop poll, he had a 59% positive rating among likely Republican voters. Graham won the June 10 primary with 178,833 votes (56.42%). His nearest challenger, State Senator Lee Bright, received 48,904 (15.4%).


title: Lindsey Graham

text: Graham won the general election, defeating the Democratic nominee, State Senator Brad Hutto, 54% to 39%. Independent Thomas Ravenel (a former Republican State Treasurer) and Libertarian Victor Kocher received 3.8% and 2.7% of the vote, respectively.


title: Lindsey Graham

text: Democrat Jaime Harrison challenged Graham in the 2020 Senate election. The race was unexpectedly competitive, with many polls in the last few months of the race showing it as very close. Harrison also had record fundraising numbers. Despite this, Graham defeated Harrison by over ten percentage points, 54.4% to 44.2%, in the November 3 general election.


title: Lindsey Graham

text: In November 2018, Senator Chuck Grassley, chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, announced that he would become chair of the Senate Finance Committee, and that Graham would take his place as chair of the Judiciary Committee, pending his formal selection by colleagues.


title: Lindsey Graham

text: In July 2015, when Graham was a presidential candidate, he called Donald Trump, then another presidential candidate, a "jackass" for saying that Graham's close friend, Senator John McCain, was "not a war hero." Trump reacted by calling Graham an "idiot" and revealing Graham's personal cellphone number at a campaign rally, asking people to call Graham.


title: Lindsey Graham

text: In December 2015, Trump, the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, called for a ban on Muslims entering the United States. Graham, who had very little support as a presidential candidate, responded: "He's a race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot ... He doesn't represent my [Republican] party ... I don't think he has a clue about anything ... He is empowering radical Islam ... You know how you make America great again? Tell Donald Trump to go to hell." He added, "I'd rather lose without Donald Trump than try to win with him."


title: Lindsey Graham

text: In June 2016, after Trump criticized a judge of Mexican heritage, implying he could be biased, Graham said to CNN: "I don't think [Trump is] racist but he's playing the race card ... I think it's very un-American ... If he continues this line of attack then I think people really need to reconsider the future of the [Republican] party." Graham told "The New York Times" that that incident "is probably it" for anyone looking to withdraw their support of Trump: "There'll come a time when the love of country will trump hatred of Hillary Clinton", the Democratic nominee for president.


title: Lindsey Graham

text: In the November presidential election, Graham did not vote for Trump, saying, "I couldn’t go where Donald Trump wanted to take the USA & GOP." He voted for independent candidate Evan McMullin.


title: Lindsey Graham

text: In March 2017, Graham held a meeting with Trump. Graham said that the meeting went so well that he passed his new phone number to Trump, in reference to their 2015 conflict. In October 2017, Graham and Trump played golf together on multiple occasions, with Graham praising the first outing. In November 2017, Graham criticized the media's reporting on Trump: "What concerns me about the American press is this endless, endless attempt to label the guy some kind of kook not fit to be president." (In February 2016, Graham said of Trump: "I think he's a kook. I think he's crazy. I think he's unfit for office.")


title: Lindsey Graham

text: In April 2018, Graham said that he would support Trump's reelection in 2020. In January 2019, Graham said that Republicans must support Trump's policies: "If we undercut the president, that’s the end of his presidency and the end of our party."


title: Lindsey Graham

text: In February 2019 Mark Leibovich interviewed Graham for "The New York Times Magazine". He asked Graham how he became a prominent Trump supporter. Graham responded that he was attempting "to be relevant": "I've got an opportunity up here working with the president to get some really good outcomes for the country ... I have never been called this much by a president in my life ... He's asked me to do some things, and I’ve asked him to do some things in return." Graham said he had been gaining influence with Trump and was attempting to enter Trump's inner circle, where he would reach a level of influence on par with Melania Trump, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner. He said that he had had a "political marriage" with John McCain, but as for his relationship with Trump: "I personally like him. We play golf. He’s very nice to me." Graham also said that a good relationship with Trump would help his prospects of reelection to the Senate in 2020.


title: Lindsey Graham

text: Seven months after the death of McCain, one of Graham's "dearest friends", Trump repeatedly criticized McCain. Graham was then criticized for not standing up for McCain. Graham responded, "To all those people who bring up this narrative, you just hate Trump ... You're not offended about me and McCain; you're trying to use me to get to Trump ... I'm not into this idea that the only way to honor John McCain is to trash out Trump." He also said, "The bottom line here is I'm going to help President Trump." McCain had banned Trump from his funeral. Trump's daughter Ivanka attended his funeral, reportedly at the invitation of Graham, who had reportedly gotten McCain's wife's permission. According to Graham, Trump called him after he delivered an emotional farewell to McCain on the Senate floor, telling him he "did right by his friend."


title: Lindsey Graham

text: On May 14, 2019, Graham came under scrutiny, including from Senator Joe Manchin, after encouraging Donald Trump Jr. to ignore a subpoena delivered by the Senate Intelligence Committee.


title: Lindsey Graham

text: In July 2019, Graham said he did not think Trump was racist and that he did not think that Trump's statements that certain Democratic congresswomen should "go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came" were racist. Graham said, "I don't think a Somali refugee embracing Trump would be asked to go back. If you're racist, you want everybody to go back because they are black or Muslim." Earlier in August 2018, "The Washington Post" reported that Graham had said, "I have never heard him make a single racist statement. Not even close."


title: Lindsey Graham

text: On October 8, 2019, during an interview with Jonathan Swan of Axios, Graham condemned Trump's announcement of an intention to withdraw U.S. troops from northern Syria, saying that Trump was putting the nation and his presidency at risk, and that it was without the support of key national security advisers. Media focused on Graham's reversals and Trump's apparent lack of appreciation for his advice.


title: Lindsey Graham

text: In December 2019, as two articles of impeachment against Trump moved to a vote before the full House and referral to the Senate for trial, Graham said, "I am trying to give a pretty clear signal I have made up my mind. I'm not trying to pretend to be a fair juror here", adding, "this thing will come to the Senate, and it will die quickly, and I will do everything I can to make it die quickly." He also announced that he held "disdain for the accusations and the process. So I don't need any witnesses" for the Senate trial. In response, Democrats referenced statements Graham made during the 1998 impeachment of Bill Clinton, including his citation of Richard Nixon as proof that a president who ignored a subpoena should be impeached for taking "the power from Congress over the impeachment process away from Congress" and becoming "judge and jury" himself.


title: Lindsey Graham

text: Even after all major news networks projected that Joe Biden had won the 2020 United States presidential election, Graham said that Trump "should not concede" because "if Republicans don't challenge and change the U.S. election system, there will never be another Republican president elected again". Graham said he donated $500,000 to Trump's election lawsuits in various states, and that the option should be "on the table" for Republican state legislators to invalidate election results due to alleged "corruption" by appointing presidential electors who would vote for Trump.


title: Lindsey Graham

text: After receiving an affidavit by Pennsylvania postal worker Richard Hopkins alleging that his postmaster discussed backdating mail ballots, Graham issued a statement that "all credible allegations of voting irregularities and misconduct be investigated to ensure the integrity of the 2020 elections", including Hopkins's. Hopkins's affidavit was released by Project Veritas, a controversial conservative organization known for using deceptive tactics; Project Veritas later released a recording in which Hopkins says that he did not hear his postmaster explicitly discuss backdating ballots, and that Project Veritas wrote his affidavit for him.


title: Lindsey Graham

text: The 2020 United States presidential election in Georgia produced an initial count where Biden defeated Trump by around 14,000 votes, triggering a recount due to the small margin. While the recount was ongoing, Graham privately called the Georgia Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger to discuss Georgia's vote counting. Raffensperger, a Republican, told "The Washington Post" that Graham had asked Raffensperger whether Raffensperger could disqualify all mail-in ballots in counties with more signature errors. Gabriel Sterling, a Republican election official and staffer to Raffensperger, was present on the call; Sterling confirmed that Graham had asked that question. Raffensperger viewed Graham's question as a suggestion to throw out legally cast ballots. Graham denied suggesting this. Graham acknowledged calling Raffensperger to find out how to "protect the integrity of mail-in voting" and "how does signature verification work", but said that if Raffensperger "feels threatened by that conversation, he’s got a problem". Graham said that he was investigating in his capacity as a senator, although he was the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee. He went on to claim that he had also spoken to Arizona's and Nevada's secretaries of state. Those secretaries denied this, and Graham reversed himself, saying that he had spoken to the governor of Arizona and no official in Nevada. "The Washington Post" reported in February 2021 that Fani Willis, the Fulton County, Georgia district attorney, was examining Graham's phone call to Raffensperger as part of a criminal investigation into possible efforts to illegally overturn Georgia's election results.


title: Lindsey Graham

text: On January 6, 2021, Graham, Vice President Mike Pence, and members of the Senate and House were evacuated from the Capitol building after Trump supporters attacked the United States Capitol. The joint session of Congress reconvened late into the night and the early morning in the Senate chamber to count and confirm the Electoral College votes. Graham spoke, disagreeing with many of his Republican colleagues, who mostly supported Trump's denials of the election's results, saying, "it's a uniquely bad idea to delay this election", and though "I hate it", they could "count me out, enough is enough". He finished by saying, "Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are lawfully elected and will become the President and the Vice President of the United States on January the 20th."


title: Lindsey Graham

text: In August 2021, "The New York Times" reported that Graham called Biden days after the election in an effort to revive their friendship and told Biden he had called for a special counsel investigation of Biden's son Hunter during the campaign only to appease Trump supporters among his constituents. A Graham spokesman disputed the "Times"'s account.


title: Lindsey Graham

text: Tea Party opponents have called Graham a "moderate Republican." He calls himself a "Reagan-style Republican", and has been called a fairly conservative Republican with "a twang of moderation" and "an independent streak."


title: Lindsey Graham

text: Much of the Tea Party criticism focuses on his willingness to be bipartisan and work with Democrats on issues like climate change, tax reform and immigration reform and his belief that judicial nominees should not be opposed solely because of their philosophical positions. He voted to confirm both of President Obama's Supreme Court nominees, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan. For his part, Graham has criticized and confronted the Tea Party, arguing for a more inclusive Republican Party. In the first session of the 115th Congress, Graham was ranked the sixth most bipartisan senator by the Lugar Center and Georgetown's McCourt School of Public Policy.


title: Lindsey Graham

text: In 2016, after Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia died, Republican senators boycotted Obama's nomination of Merrick Garland. Graham said that Supreme Court vacancies should never be filled in a presidential election year and that "[w]e are setting a precedent today, Republicans are." He said that if a similar situation arose, "you can use my words against me and you'd be absolutely right." In an October 2018 interview, Graham said specifically that "[i]f an opening comes in the last year of President Trump's term, and the primary process has started, we'll wait till the next election."


title: Lindsey Graham

text: During the 2018 confirmation hearings following Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court of the United States, Graham took a strong stance against letting the process be further delayed by Christine Blasey Ford's allegations. Ford accused Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her decades earlier when the two were in high school. Speaking to reporters immediately after the Senate Judiciary Committee questioned Ford, Graham declared himself unmoved by her testimony, doubting her recollection that it was Kavanaugh who had assaulted her.


title: Lindsey Graham

text: When Kavanaugh testified before the committee the following day, Graham used his time to speak in Kavanaugh's defense, describing him as a victim who had been put through "hell" by "the most unethical sham" he had seen in his time in politics and that if Kavanaugh was looking for fair process, he had "c[o]me to the wrong town at the wrong time". A CNN commentator characterized Graham's speech as an "audition" for Attorney General.


title: Lindsey Graham

text: In 2019, Graham became chair of the Judiciary Committee. In May 2020, Graham said the Senate would work to confirm a Supreme Court nominee if a vacancy arose before the November election. He said "Merrick Garland was a different situation. You had the president of one party nominating, and you had the Senate in the hands of the other party. A situation where you've got them both would be different." In August 2020, he said "[a]fter Kavanaugh's confirmation, the rules have changed as far as I'm concerned."


title: Lindsey Graham

text: In September 2020, Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died. Within a day, Graham expressed support for the Senate immediately voting on Trump's nominee to succeed her. The "New York Times" called Graham's position "a complete and brazen reversal" of his earlier stance. Graham said that in 2013, years before his 2016 pledge, Democrats had changed Senate rules to allow a simple majority vote for nominees to United States courts of appeals.


title: Lindsey Graham

text: During an April 3, 2011, appearance on "Face the Nation", Graham "suggested that Congress take unspecified though formal action against the Koran-burning by Florida preacher Terry Jones", in light of an attack on United Nations personnel triggered by Jones's actions. Asserting that "Congress might need to explore the need to limit some forms of freedom of speech", Graham argued, "Free speech is a great idea, but we're in a war," and claimed that "during World War II, we had limits on what you could say if it would inspire the enemy."


title: Lindsey Graham

text: On May 23, 2005, Graham was one of the so-called Gang of 14 senators forging a compromise that brought a halt to the continued blockage of an up-or-down vote on judicial nominees. This compromise negated both the Democrats' use of a filibuster and the Republican "nuclear option". Under the agreement, the Democrats retained the power to filibuster a Bush judicial nominee only in an "extraordinary circumstance", and subsequently, three conservative Bush appellate court nominees (Janice Rogers Brown, Priscilla Owen and William H. Pryor Jr.) received a vote by the full Senate.


title: Lindsey Graham

text: In response to the 2013 disclosures about the United States National Security Agency and its international partners' global surveillance of foreign nationals and U.S. citizens, Graham said he was "glad" the NSA was collecting phone records. He said, "I'm a Verizon customer. I don't mind Verizon turning over records to the government if the government is going to make sure that they try to match up a known terrorist phone with somebody in the United States. I don't think you're talking to the terrorists. I know you're not. I know I'm not. So we don't have anything to worry about."


title: Lindsey Graham

text: On July 25, 2013, the U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations unanimously adopted an amendment by Graham to the Fiscal Year 2014 Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Bill that sought sanctions against any country that offered asylum to former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.


title: Lindsey Graham

text: In July 2005, Graham secured the declassification and release of memoranda outlining concerns made by senior military lawyers as early as 2003 about the legality of the interrogations of prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay.


title: Lindsey Graham

text: Of U.S. citizens accused of supporting terrorism, Graham said before the Senate, "When they say, 'I want my lawyer,' you tell them, 'Shut up. You don't get a lawyer. You are an enemy combatant, and we are going to talk to you about why you joined Al Qaeda.'" In response to this and a June 2004 U.S. Supreme Court decision allowing detainees to file habeas corpus petitions to challenge their detentions, Graham authored an amendment to a Department of Defense Authorization Act attempting to clarify the authority of American courts. The amendment passed in November 2005 by a vote of 49–42 in the Senate despite opposition from human rights groups and legal scholars who contended that it limited the rights of detainees.


title: Lindsey Graham

text: Graham has said he amended the Department of Defense Authorization Act in order to give military lawyers, as opposed to politically appointed lawyers, a more independent role in the oversight of military commanders. He has argued that two of the largest problems leading to the detainee abuse scandals at Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib were this lack of oversight and troops' confusion over legal boundaries.


title: Lindsey Graham

text: Graham added that military lawyers had long observed the provisions of the Uniform Code of Military Justice and the Geneva Convention, but that the Bush administration had not considered those provisions in decisions about the treatment of Guantanamo Bay detainees. He claimed that better legal oversight within the military's chain of command would prevent future detainee abuse.


title: Lindsey Graham

text: In February 2006, Graham joined Senator Jon Kyl in filing an amicus brief in the "Hamdan v. Rumsfeld" case that argued "Congress was aware" that the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005 would strip the Supreme Court of jurisdiction to hear "pending cases, including this case" brought by Guantanamo detainees.


title: Lindsey Graham

text: In a May 2009 CNN interview, Graham referred to the domestic internment of German and Japanese prisoners of war and U.S. Citizens as a model for domestic detention of Guantanamo detainees, saying, "We had 450,000 Japanese and German prisoners housed in the United States during World War II. As a nation, we can deal with this."


title: Lindsey Graham

text: Graham was a supporter of "comprehensive immigration reform", of S. 2611, the McCain-Kennedy Immigration Reform Bill of 2006, and of S. 1348, the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2007. His positions on immigration, and in particular collaborating with Senator Ted Kennedy, earned Graham the ire of conservative activists. The controversy prompted conservative activists to support a primary challenge in 2008 by longtime Republican national committeeman Buddy Witherspoon, but Graham won the nomination by a large margin.


title: Lindsey Graham

text: In early 2010, Graham began working with Democratic New York Senator Chuck Schumer on immigration reform. The talks broke down later that year.


title: Lindsey Graham

text: In July 2010, Graham suggested that U.S. citizenship as a birthright guaranteed by the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution should be amended, and that any children born to illegal immigrants in the United States should be considered illegal immigrants. He alleged, "Half the children born in hospitals on our borders are the children of illegal immigrants."


title: Lindsey Graham

text: In November 2012, Graham and Schumer resumed their talks on comprehensive immigration reform. On January 28, 2013, Graham was a member of a bipartisan group of eight senators that announced principles for comprehensive immigration reform. On June 23, 2013, Graham said that the Senate was close to obtaining 70 votes to pass the reform package.


title: Lindsey Graham

text: In May 2019, Graham proposed instituting new immigration laws that would only allow migrants to apply for asylum from their home country or Mexico, smooth the process to deport unaccompanied children to Central America, and extend the period by which migrant children could be detained from 20 days to 100 days.


title: Lindsey Graham

text: In July 2019, Graham visited a migrant detention center in Texas. He reacted that it was not "a concentration camp" but "a facility overwhelmed". Of the migrants, Graham said, "I don’t care if they have to stay in these facilities for 400 days. We're not going to let those men go that I saw. It would be dangerous."


title: Lindsey Graham

text: In May 2018, Graham voted against legislation that would have overturned the FCC's ruling and restored net neutrality.


title: Lindsey Graham

text: In March 2017, Graham voted for the Broadband Consumer Privacy Proposal that removed the FCC's internet privacy rules and allowed internet service providers to sell customers' browsing history without their permission.


title: Lindsey Graham

text: In February 2022, Graham and Richard Blumenthal introduced bipartisan legislation, as part of the EARN IT Act, to incentivize tech companies to remove child sexual abuse material (CSAM) from their platforms and remove blanket immunity for violations of laws related to online child pornography.


title: Lindsey Graham

text: Graham opposes extending background checks. He has said, "universal background checks are going to require universal [gun] registration." However, he has called current gun laws "broken", citing an example of a woman who pleaded guilty by reason of insanity to attempting to kill President George W. Bush, but who was later able to pass a background check and buy a gun. To this end, in March 2013, he joined Senators Jeff Flake, Mark Begich, and Mark Pryor in introducing a bill that would close a loophole by flagging individuals who attempt to buy guns who have used an insanity defense, were ruled dangerous by a court or had been committed by a court to mental health treatment. It did not address the gun show loophole.


title: Lindsey Graham

text: In 2022, Graham became one of ten Republican senators to support a bipartisan agreement on gun control, which included a red flag provision, a support for state crisis intervention orders, funding for school safety resources, stronger background checks for buyers under the age of 21, and penalties for straw purchases.


title: Lindsey Graham

text: Graham opposed President Obama's health reform legislation; he voted against the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) in December 2009, and against the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010. He played a leading role in efforts to repeal Obamacare, authoring the Graham–Cassidy amendment to Republicans' 2017 repeal efforts. The amendment would have given states permission to remove protections for individuals with preexisting conditions, such as allowing insurers to charge them higher prices for insurance.


title: Lindsey Graham

text: Graham criticized Senator Rand Paul after Paul said, "I've heard of many tragic cases of walking, talking, normal children who wound up with profound mental disorders after vaccines." Graham said that Paul was "creating anxiety for no good reason" and "looking at this issue through a libertarian's eyes, not a physician's eyes".


title: Lindsey Graham

text: In 2015, Graham sponsored the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act in the Senate, which bans abortion after 20 weeks of gestation on a national basis, with some exceptions (to save the life of the mother, or when the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest). In 2018, Graham was anti-abortion, but said that "Roe v. Wade" is precedent that should not be overturned without good reason. In 2020, he was one of 13 Republican senators who declined to sign an amicus brief asking the Supreme Court to overturn "Roe".


title: Lindsey Graham

text: In May 2022, Graham advocated that the Supreme Court overturn "Roe" to ensure that "every state will decide if abortion is legal and on what terms", as this would be "the most constitutionally sound way of dealing with this issue and the way the United States handled the issue until 1973." In June 2022, he asserted that all conservatives "believed that there's nothing in the Constitution giving the federal government the right to regulate abortion". In August 2022, Graham said that "states should decide the issue of abortion" and that he had "been consistent" on this.


title: Lindsey Graham

text: In September 2022, Graham introduced legislation in an attempt to institute a federal ban on abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy with exceptions for rape, incest, and the life of the patient. Graham said: "This is not a states' rights issue. This is a human right issue ... I am going to advocate a national minimum standard."


title: Lindsey Graham

text: In 1996, Graham voted for the Defense of Marriage Act, which became federal law that year; it defined marriage as between one man and one woman, and enacted non-recognition of same-sex marriages at the federal level. Graham reiterated his support of the Defense of Marriage Act in 2022.


title: Lindsey Graham

text: Graham voted to support a constitutional amendment opposing marriage between same-sex couples in 2006. He said, "I believe in the traditional definition of marriage as being between one man and one woman. Traditional marriage is an institution worth protecting and this amendment will accomplish that goal. A constitutional amendment is the only effective way to cut off the growing trend among judges to create a constitutional right to same-sex marriage." After the Supreme Court ruling in "Obergefell v. Hodges", Graham said that although he disagreed with the ruling, he no longer believed that a constitutional amendment was a viable action on the issue.


title: Lindsey Graham

text: In August 2022, after the House of Representatives approved a bill to recognize same-sex marriages at the federal level and that bill was sent to the Senate, Graham said that "states should decide the issue of marriage [...] if you're going to ask me to have the federal government take over defining marriage, I'm going to say no".


title: Lindsey Graham

text: On December 10, 2009, Graham and Senators John Kerry and Joe Lieberman co-sponsored a letter to President Obama announcing their commitment to passing a climate change bill and outlining its framework. Graham was identified as a potential Republican supporter of a climate change bill and thought to be a likely sponsor of the final bill, but he pulled his support, saying that he disapproved of Senate Democrats moving forward with legislation to deal with immigration issues, a reaction to Arizona's passage of an illegal immigration law. Graham's withdrawal of support left passage of the climate change bill in doubt.


title: Lindsey Graham

text: In June 2010, Graham told reporters, "The science about global warming has changed. I think they've oversold this stuff, quite frankly. I think they've been alarmist and the science is in question. The whole movement has taken a giant step backward." He also said that he planned to vote against the climate bill he had originally co-sponsored, citing further restriction of offshore drilling added to the bill and its impact on transportation. In 2015, Graham said he "completely understand[s] and accept[s]" that climate change is real, but said "I don't know" the role human activity played.


title: Lindsey Graham

text: In 2020, Graham sponsored the Growing Climate Solutions Act, a bill that would make it simpler for farmers to sell carbon credits on existing carbon trading markets in California and in the Northeast.


title: Lindsey Graham

text: Graham supports an interventionist foreign policy. In 2002, he voted for the Iraq Resolution, which authorized military action against Iraq. He also supported the invasion of Iraq. Graham and Senators John McCain and Joe Lieberman, who were frequently dubbed "the three amigos", traveled widely, pushing for American military intervention, particularly after the September 11 attacks. Their influence reached its zenith in 2007 as President Bush advocated for his surge strategy in Iraq, declining shortly before Lieberman retired from the Senate in 2013. Kelly Ayotte, who joined the Senate in 2011, was considered Lieberman's replacement in the group.


title: Lindsey Graham

text: Graham was a frequent critic of the foreign policy of the Barack Obama administration. He threatened to derail the confirmation of Obama's nominee for secretary of defense, Chuck Hagel, remarking that Hagel "would be the most antagonistic secretary of defense towards the state of Israel in our nation's history."


title: Lindsey Graham

text: On February 28, 2013, Graham criticized Obama and both political parties on the Senate floor for allowing the budget reduction to occur with "two-thirds of the budget" exempt from reductions and said the impact on the Department of Defense would create a "hollow military" that "invites aggression".


title: Lindsey Graham

text: Graham suggested that the U.S. stay in Afghanistan permanently, claiming that this would benefit both nations, as the U.S. would have a clear idea of what was happening in the region on a daily basis, and Afghan security forces would have an edge militarily to ensure that Afghanistan never fell back into the hands of the Taliban. He further claimed that Afghan leaders accept this long-term U.S. military presence since it benefits them, but Iran and some of its allies oppose it, a debatable claim.


title: Lindsey Graham

text: Graham vehemently opposed Joe Biden's plan to withdraw all U.S. troops from Afghanistan. He suggested that this plan puts the U.S. in danger and could cause "another 9/11". Soon after the withdrawal of U.S. troops started, the Taliban launched an offensive against the Afghan government, quickly advancing in front of a collapsing Afghan Armed Forces. On July 8, 2021, Graham called President Biden's decision a "disaster in the making."


title: Lindsey Graham

text: On November 6, 2010, Graham called for a preemptive military strike to weaken the Iranian regime. In 2011, he supported a continuing U.S. military presence in Iraq, saying, "If we're not smart enough to work with the Iraqis to have 10,000 to 15,000 American troops in Iraq in 2012, Iraq could go to hell."


title: Lindsey Graham

text: On an episode of "Fox and Friends", Graham joked that it would be "terrible" if a DNA test showed he had Iranian ancestry. Co-host Brian Kilmeade responded, "Well, they have great people, just bad leaders," which Graham confirmed. The president of the National Iranian American Council and a number of high-profile Iranian-Americans criticized Graham's comments.


title: Lindsey Graham

text: In December 2010, Graham was one of 26 senators to vote against the ratification of New Start, a nuclear arms reduction treaty between the U.S. and the Russian Federation obliging both countries to have no more than 1,550 strategic warheads or 700 launchers deployed during the next seven years along with providing a continuation of on-site inspections that halted when START I expired the previous year. It was the first arms treaty with Russia in eight years.


title: Lindsey Graham

text: In August 2011, Graham co-sponsored a resolution that contended that "Russia's invasion of Georgian land in 2008 was an act of aggression, not only to Georgia but to all new democracies."


title: Lindsey Graham

text: On July 16, 2013, Graham suggested the United States should consider boycotting the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, because of "what the Russian government is doing throughout the world".


title: Lindsey Graham

text: On March 3, 2022, Graham tweeted that "The only way this ends is for somebody in Russia to take this guy out" in response to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. The tweet sparked controversy after Graham called for the assassination of Vladimir Putin.


title: Lindsey Graham

text: Graham supported the NATO-led military intervention in Libya. On January 29, 2013, Graham said that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton "got away with murder" after her testimony about the 2012 Benghazi attack, but the next year he said that the House Intelligence Committee report on Benghazi was "full of crap" and that the Obama administration had been cleared of many of the charges therein.


title: Lindsey Graham

text: On January 5, 2017, Graham condemned Obama for abstaining from UN Security Council Resolution 2334, which condemned Israeli settlement building in the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem as a violation of international law.


title: Lindsey Graham

text: On March 11, 2019, Graham said he would encourage the Trump administration to recognize the Golan Heights as part of Israel.


title: Lindsey Graham

text: In May 2019, Graham called for a military invasion of Venezuela to overthrow Nicolás Maduro amid the 2019 Venezuelan presidential crisis.


title: Lindsey Graham

text: In October 2017, in the wake of the Tongo Tongo ambush, which killed four U.S. soldiers, Graham said, "I didn't know there was a thousand troops in Niger." A few days later, he called for an expanded role of the U.S. military in Niger: "You're going to see more actions in Africa, not less; you're going to see more aggression by the United States toward our enemies, not less; you're going to have decisions being made not in the White House but out in the field."


title: Lindsey Graham

text: In July 2018, Graham and Senator Jeanne Shaheen visited Manbij in Syria, and met the Manbij Military Council, which led an offensive to liberate the city from ISIS in 2016 with help from the US-led coalition.


title: Lindsey Graham

text: In March 2015, Graham supported the Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen, saying, "We want to have a relationship with Saudi Arabia. They're a strategic partner. They're a mortal enemy of the Iranians." In June 2019, he was one of seven Republicans to vote to block Trump's Saudi arms deal providing weapons to Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Jordan, and one of five Republicans to vote against an additional 20 arms sales. In late 2019, Graham took a warmer approach toward Saudi Arabia. He praised the Trump administration for sending thousands of additional troops to Saudi Arabia to counter Iran's threat. He also praised Saudi Arabia for opening its airspace to Israeli flights.


title: Lindsey Graham

text: In October 2019, Graham said he would "introduce bipartisan sanctions against Turkey if they invade Syria" and that he would "call for their suspension from NATO if they attack Kurdish forces who assisted the US in the destruction of the ISIS Caliphate."


title: Lindsey Graham

text: In November 2019, Graham blocked a Senate resolution to officially recognize the Armenian genocide. In December 2019, he voted for the resolution, which passed the Senate unanimously.


title: Lindsey Graham

text: In January 2018, and in the first known congressional criminal referral in the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, Graham and Chuck Grassley recommended charges against ex-MI6 officer Christopher Steele, named as author of the Steele dossier. Grassley and Graham said that they had reason to believe that Steele had lied to federal authorities. According to "The New York Times", "It was not clear why, if a crime is apparent in the F.B.I. reports that were reviewed by the Judiciary Committee, the Justice Department had not moved to charge Mr. Steele already. The circumstances under which Mr. Steele is alleged to have lied were unclear, as much of the referral was classified."


title: Lindsey Graham

text: In April 2018, after the FBI raid on the hotel room and offices of Trump's personal attorney, Michael Cohen, Graham, Cory Booker, Chris Coons, and Thom Tillis introduced new legislation to "limit President Trump's ability to fire special counsel Robert Mueller." Termed the Special Counsel Independence and Integrity Act, the legislation would allow any special counsel, in this case Mueller, receive an "expedited judicial review" in the 10 days after being dismissed to determine whether the dismissal was appropriate. If not, the special counsel would be reinstated. At the same time, according to "The Hill", the bill would "codify regulations" that a special counsel could only be fired by a senior Justice Department official, having to provide reasons in writing.


title: Lindsey Graham

text: On March 14, 2019, Graham blocked a resolution calling for Mueller's report to be made public after it passed the House unanimously.


title: Lindsey Graham

text: After Mueller's testimony to two congressional committees on July 24, 2019, Graham speculated that "the Mueller report is in name only. It clearly wasn't the Mueller report. It was just in name." On June 25, 2019, Graham said, "The president gave 1.4 million documents to Mueller. [Don] McGahn, his lawyer, testified for 30 hours. He made everybody available to Mueller that Mueller wanted to talk to, and he... answered questions in writing, so this president did nothing to stop Mueller from finding the truth."


title: Lindsey Graham

text: Although Graham signed Grover Norquist's Taxpayer Protection Pledge in June 2012, he went on record supporting the closure of tax loopholes without compensating decreases in other tax revenue, saying, "We're so far in debt that if you don't give up some ideological ground, the country sinks."


title: Lindsey Graham

text: The Cato Institute's Center for Trade Policy Studies identifies Graham, during his U.S. House and U.S. Senate tenure, as having a mostly protectionist and pro-subsidies voting record.


title: Lindsey Graham

text: After a multiple shooting incident at an historic African American church in Charleston on June 17, 2015, Graham canceled all campaign events to return to South Carolina. In response to questions from the press regarding the calls from some to remove the Confederate flag at a war memorial on the South Carolina State Capitol grounds, Graham said, "Well, at the end of the day it's time for people in South Carolina to revisit that decision. [That] would be fine with me, but this is part of who we are." He continued, "The flag represents to some people a civil war, and that was the symbol of one side. To others it's a racist symbol, and it's been used by people—it's been used in a racist way." Of the shooter responsible for the incident, Graham said, "We're not going to give this a guy an excuse about a book he might have read, or a movie he watched, or a song he listened to, or a symbol out anywhere. It's him ... not the flag."


title: Lindsey Graham

text: In a statement issued later, Graham said, "There can be no doubt that the shooting ... was racially motivated and signals to all of us that the scars of our history are still with us today. This murderer said he wanted to start a race war; he has failed miserably. In Charleston this weekend, I saw a community coming together. I saw people seeking solace in what they share together, not in what makes them different."


title: Lindsey Graham

text: In 2016, "The Boston Globe" reported that Graham was "the only Republican recipient of money from a major Democratic donor now facing scrutiny for some questionable campaign donation habits." The Thornton Law Firm is nationally known for its expertise in asbestos-related litigation. Over a ten-year period, Graham received $62,800 in campaign contributions from the firm's partners. "The Boston Globe" found that the firm, in almost every case, would reimburse partners' political contributions—in the exact amount—within 10 days of the contributions being made. Between 2010 and 2014, the firm's partners and one of their wives contributed $1.6 million to politicians; $1.4 million was given back to the partners from the firm. The firm told reporters that according to outside consultants the practice was not unlawful because the checks are not bonuses, instead coming out of the partners' firm equity accounts.


title: Lindsey Graham

text: A spokesman for Graham said that Graham would return the money he received from the firm's lawyers if the law firm were indicted or convicted on corruption charges.


title: Lindsey Graham

text: Graham supported John McCain for president in 2000 and served as national co-chair of McCain's 2008 presidential campaign.


title: Lindsey Graham

text: In 2012, Graham's endorsement was highly sought, but he declined to endorse a Republican candidate before the January South Carolina Republican primary. After Rick Santorum withdrew from the race in April 2012, leaving Mitt Romney as the presumptive nominee, Graham endorsed Romney.


title: Lindsey Graham

text: During his Senate reelection race in October 2014, while discussing immigration and foreign policy issues with a reporter from "The Weekly Standard", Graham said, "If I get through my general election, if nobody steps up in the presidential mix, if nobody's out there talking ... I may just jump in to get to make these arguments." On March 7, 2015, at a "Politics and Pies" forum, Graham advocated the reversal of defense spending cuts and quipped: "If I were President of the United States, I wouldn't let Congress leave town until we fix this. I would literally use the military to keep them in if I had to."


title: Lindsey Graham

text: On April 19, 2015, Graham told Chris Wallace, on the "Fox News Sunday" show, that he was "91% sure" he would run for president. "If I can raise the money, I'll do it," he said. On May 18, 2015, Graham informally announced that he would run for president on "CBS This Morning", saying he was running because he thinks "the world is falling apart."


title: Lindsey Graham

text: On December 21, 2015, Graham suspended his presidential campaign, due to lack of support and poor polling, and on January 15, 2016, endorsed former Florida Governor Jeb Bush. After it appeared certain that Donald Trump would become the Republican nominee in May 2016, Graham announced that he would not vote for Trump or Hillary Clinton, commenting: "I think Donald Trump is going to places where very few people have gone and I'm not going with him." On November 8, 2016, Graham announced that he had voted for Evan McMullin.


title: Lindsey Graham

text: <nowiki>*</nowiki>Write-in and minor candidate notes: In 1994, write-ins received 13 votes. In 2000, Natural Law candidate LeRoy J. Klein received 1,122 votes and write-ins received 33 votes. George Brightharp ran under both the Democratic and United Citizens Parties and received 2,253 votes on the United Citizen line.


title: Lindsey Graham

text: Graham has never been married and has no children. He helped raise his sister, Darline Graham Nordone, after the deaths of his mother and father, which occurred within 15 months of each other, leaving the two without parents when Graham was 22 and she was 13. Graham has said that his parents' early deaths made him mature more quickly, and Nordone, who introduced her brother at his 2016 announcement of his candidacy for president, said she hoped to be with him on the campaign trail frequently to show voters his softer side. "He's kind of like a brother, a father and a mother rolled into one," she said. "I've always looked up to Lindsey."


title: Lindsey Graham

text: Graham lives in Seneca, South Carolina. A Southern Baptist, he is a member of the Corinth Baptist Church.


title: Steve Winwood

text: Stephen Lawrence Winwood (born 12 May 1948) is an English musician, singer, and songwriter whose genres include blue-eyed soul, rhythm and blues, blues rock, and pop rock. Though primarily a keyboard player and vocalist prominent for his distinctive, soulful high tenor voice, Winwood plays other instruments proficiently, including drums, mandolin, guitar, bass, and saxophone.


title: Steve Winwood

text: Winwood was an integral member of three seminal musical ensembles of the 1960s and 1970s: the Spencer Davis Group, Traffic, and Blind Faith. Beginning in the 1980s, his solo career flourished and he had a number of hit singles, including "While You See a Chance" (1980) from the album "Arc of a Diver" and "Valerie" (1982) from "Talking Back to the Night" ("Valerie" became a hit when it was re-released with a remix from Winwood's 1987 compilation album "Chronicles"). His 1986 album "Back in the High Life" marked his career zenith, with hit singles including "Back in the High Life Again", "The Finer Things", and the US "Billboard" Hot 100 number one hit "Higher Love". He found the top of the Hot 100 again with "Roll With It" (1988) from the album of the same name, with "Holding On" also charting highly the same year. While his hit singles ceased at the end of the 1980s, he continued to release new albums up to 2008, when "Nine Lives", his latest album, was released.


title: Steve Winwood

text: Winwood was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Traffic in 2004. In 2005, Winwood was honoured as a BMI Icon at the annual BMI London Awards for his "enduring influence on generations of music makers." In 2008, "Rolling Stone" ranked Winwood No. 33 in its 100 Greatest Singers of All Time. Winwood has won two Grammy Awards. He was nominated twice for a Brit Award for Best British Male Artist: 1988 and 1989. In 2011, he received the Ivor Novello Award from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors for Outstanding Song Collection.


title: Steve Winwood

text: Winwood was born on 12 May 1948 in Handsworth, Birmingham. His father Lawrence, a foundryman by trade, was a semi-professional musician, playing mainly the saxophone and clarinet. The 4-year-old began playing piano while interested in swing and Dixieland jazz, and soon started playing drums and guitar. He was also a choirboy at St. John's Church of England, Perry Barr. The family moved from Handsworth to Kingstanding (Atlantic Road) Birmingham, where Winwood attended the Great Barr School, one of the first comprehensive schools. He also attended the Birmingham and Midland Institute of Music to develop his skills as a pianist, but did not complete his course. During this time, he befriended future Fleetwood Mac member Christine McVie.


title: Steve Winwood

text: At eight years old, he first performed with his father and elder brother Muff in the Ron Atkinson Band. Muff later recalled that when Steve began playing regularly with them in licensed pubs and clubs, the piano had to be turned with its back to the audience to try to hide him, because he was so obviously underage.


title: Steve Winwood

text: While still a pupil at Great Barr School, Winwood was a part of the Birmingham blues rock scene, playing the Hammond C-3 organ and guitar, backing blues and rock legends such as Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Howlin' Wolf, B.B. King, Chuck Berry, and Bo Diddley on their United Kingdom tours, the custom at that time being for US singers to travel solo and be backed by pick-up bands. At this time, Winwood was living on Atlantic Road in Great Barr, close to the Birmingham music halls where he played. Winwood modelled his singing after Ray Charles.


title: Steve Winwood

text: At age 14, Winwood (then known as "Stevie" Winwood) joined the Spencer Davis Group along with older brother Muff, who later had success as a record producer, after Davis saw them performing as the Muffy Wood Jazz Band at a Birmingham pub called the Golden Eagle. The group made their debut at the Eagle and subsequently had a Monday-night residency there. Winwood's distinctive high tenor singing voice and vocal style drew comparisons to Ray Charles.


title: Steve Winwood

text: In 1964, they signed their first recording contract with Island Records. Producer and founder Chris Blackwell later said of Winwood, "He was really the cornerstone of Island Records. He's a musical genius and because he was with Island all the other talent really wanted to be with Island." The group's first record, a single, was released 10 days after Winwood's 16th birthday. The group had their first number one single at the end of 1965, with "Keep on Running"; the money from this success allowed Winwood to buy his own Hammond organ. Winwood co-wrote and recorded the chart-topping hits "Gimme Some Lovin'" and "I'm a Man" before leaving the Spencer Davis Group in 1967.


title: Steve Winwood

text: Winwood joined forces with guitarist Eric Clapton as part of the one-off group Eric Clapton and the Powerhouse. Songs were recorded for the Elektra label, but only three tracks made the 1966 compilation album, "What's Shakin'".


title: Steve Winwood

text: Winwood met drummer Jim Capaldi, guitarist Dave Mason, and multi-instrumentalist Chris Wood when they jammed together at The Elbow Room, a club in Aston, Birmingham. After Winwood left the Spencer Davis Group in April 1967, the quartet formed Traffic. Soon thereafter, they rented a cottage near the rural village of Aston Tirrold, Berkshire (now Oxfordshire), to write and rehearse new music. This allowed them to escape the city and develop their music.


title: Steve Winwood

text: Early in Traffic's formation, Winwood and Capaldi formed a songwriting partnership, with Winwood writing music to match Capaldi's lyrics. This partnership was the source of most of Traffic's material, including popular songs such as "Paper Sun" and "The Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys", and outlived the band, producing several songs for Winwood and Capaldi's solo albums. Over the band's history, Winwood performed the majority of their lead vocals, keyboard instruments, and guitars. He also frequently played bass and percussion, up to and including the recording sessions for their fourth album. While still in Traffic, Winwood was brought in by Jimi Hendrix to play organ for "Voodoo Chile" on the "Electric Ladyland" album.


title: Steve Winwood

text: Winwood formed the supergroup Blind Faith in 1969, with Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker, and Ric Grech. The band was short-lived, owing to Clapton's greater interest in Blind Faith's opening act Delaney & Bonnie & Friends; Clapton left the band at the tour's end. Baker, Winwood, and Grech stayed together to form Ginger Baker's Air Force. The line-up consisted of 3/4 of Blind Faith (without Clapton, who was replaced by Denny Laine), half of Traffic (Winwood and Chris Wood, minus Capaldi and Mason), plus musicians who interacted with Baker in his early days, including Phil Seamen, Harold McNair, John Blood, and Graham Bond.


title: Steve Winwood

text: This project also turned out to be short-lived. Winwood soon went into the studio to begin work on a new solo album, tentatively titled "Mad Shadows". However, Winwood ended up calling in Wood and Capaldi to help with session work, which prompted Traffic's comeback album "John Barleycorn Must Die" in 1970.


title: Steve Winwood

text: In 1972, Winwood recorded the part of Captain Walker in the highly successful orchestral version of The Who's "Tommy". He recorded a 1973 album with Remi Kabaka and Abdul Lasisi Amao, as Third World, "Aiye-Keta". Later, after the reggae group Third World had formed, the album was re-released and identified as being just by the band members' names. In 1976, Winwood provided vocals and keyboards on "Go", a concept album by Japanese composer Stomu Yamashta. In 1976, Winwood also played guitar on the Fania All Stars' "Delicate and Jumpy" record and performed as a guest with the band in their only UK appearance, a sold-out concert at the Lyceum Theatre, London.


title: Steve Winwood

text: Weariness with the grind of touring and recording prompted Winwood to leave Traffic and retire to sessioning for some years. Under pressure from Island Records, he resurfaced with his self-titled first solo album in 1977. This was followed by his 1980 hit "Arc of a Diver" (which included his first solo hit, "While You See a Chance") and "Talking Back to the Night" in 1982.


title: Steve Winwood

text: Both albums were recorded at his home in Gloucestershire with Winwood playing all instruments. He continued to do sessions during this period, and in 1983, he co-produced and played on Jim Capaldi's top 40 hit "That's Love" and co-wrote the Will Powers top 20 hit "Kissing with Confidence".


title: Steve Winwood

text: In 1986, he moved to New York. There he enlisted the help of a coterie of stars to record "Back in the High Life" in the US, and the album was a hit. He topped the "Billboard" Hot 100 with "Higher Love" and earned two Grammy Awards: Record of the Year and Best Male Pop Vocal Performance.


title: Steve Winwood

text: All these albums were released on Island Records. However, at the peak of his commercial success, Winwood moved to Virgin Records and released "Roll with It" and "Refugees of the Heart". The album "Roll with It" and the title track hit No. 1 on the USA album and singles charts in the summer of 1988. Another album with Virgin, "Far from Home", was officially credited to Traffic, but nearly all the instruments were played by Winwood. Despite lacking a significant hit, it broke the top 40 in both the UK and USA.


title: Steve Winwood

text: A new studio album, "Nine Lives", was released 29 April 2008 by Wincraft Music through Columbia Records. The album opened at No. 12 on the "Billboard" 200 album chart, his highest US debut ever.


title: Steve Winwood

text: In 2008, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the Berklee College of Music to add to his honorary degree from Aston University, Birmingham. On 28 March 2012 Winwood was one of Roger Daltrey's special guest stars for "An Evening with Roger Daltrey and Friends" gig, in aid of the Teenage Cancer Trust at the Royal Albert Hall.


title: Steve Winwood

text: In 2013, Winwood toured North America with Rod Stewart as part of the "Live the Life" tour. In 2014, Winwood toured North America with Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers.


title: Steve Winwood

text: On 17 February 2020, Winwood participated in "A Tribute to Ginger Baker", which took place at Eventim Apollo Hammersmith in London. Other participants were Ron Wood, Roger Waters, and Eric Clapton. The concert was held in honour of Ginger Baker, his former band member in Blind Faith, who had died the previous year.


title: Steve Winwood

text: In 1994, Capaldi and Winwood reunited Traffic for a new album, "Far From Home", and a tour, including a performance at Woodstock '94 Festival. That same year, Winwood appeared on the "A Tribute To Curtis Mayfield" CD, recording Mayfield's "It's All Right".


title: Steve Winwood

text: In 1995, Winwood released "Reach for the Light" for the animated film "Balto". In 1997, Winwood released a new album, "Junction Seven", toured the US, and sang with Chaka Khan at the VH-1 Honors.


title: Steve Winwood

text: In 1998, Winwood joined Tito Puente, Arturo Sandoval, Ed Calle, and other musicians to form the band "Latin Crossings" for a European tour, after which they split without making any recordings. Winwood also appeared in the film "Blues Brothers 2000", as a member of the Louisiana Gator Boys, appearing on stage with Isaac Hayes, Eric Clapton, and KoKo Taylor at the battle of the bands competition.


title: Steve Winwood

text: In 2003, Winwood released a new studio album, "About Time", on his new record label, Wincraft Music. In 2004, Eric Prydz sampled Winwood's 1982 song "Valerie" for the song "Call on Me". After hearing an early version, Winwood not only gave permission to use his song, he re-recorded the samples for Prydz to use. The remix spent five weeks at No. 1 on the UK singles chart.


title: Steve Winwood

text: In 2005, his Soundstage Performances DVD was released, featuring the recent "About Time" album, with solo hits including "Back in the High Life", and he also performed hits from his early days with Traffic. That same year, he appeared on Grammy Award winner Ashley Cleveland's album "Men and Angels Say", a mix of rock, blues, and country arrangements of well-known hymns, including "I Need Thee Every Hour", which featured a vocal duet and organ performance. On her 2006 record "Back to Basics", Christina Aguilera featured Winwood (using the piano and organ instrumentation from the "John Barleycorn Must Die" track "Glad") on her song "Makes Me Wanna Pray".


title: Steve Winwood

text: In May 2007, Winwood performed in support of the Countryside Alliance, an organisation opposed to the Hunting Act 2004, in a concert at Highclere Castle, joining fellow rock artists Bryan Ferry, Eric Clapton, Steve Harley, and Kenney Jones.


title: Steve Winwood

text: In July 2007, Winwood performed with Clapton in the latter's Crossroads Guitar Festival. Among the songs they played were "Presence of the Lord" and "Can't Find My Way Home" from their Blind Faith days, with Winwood playing several guitar leads during a six-song set. The two continued their collaboration with three sold-out nights at Madison Square Garden in New York City in February 2008.


title: Steve Winwood

text: On 19 February 2008, Winwood and Clapton released a collaborative EP through iTunes titled "Dirty City". Clapton and Winwood released a CD and DVD of their Madison Square Garden shows and then toured together in the summer of 2009.


title: Steve Winwood

text: Between 1978 and 1986, Winwood was married to Nicole Weir (d. 2005), who had contributed background vocals to some of his early solo work. The two married at Cheltenham Register Office.


title: Steve Winwood

text: Winwood's primary residence is a 300-year-old manor house in the Cotswolds, England, where he also has a recording studio. Winwood also has a home in Nashville, Tennessee, with his wife, Eugenia Crafton, a Trenton, Tennessee native whom he married in 1987. They have four children. Both were patrons of the Cheltenham Festivals of music and literature between 2007 and 2015.


title: Steve Winwood

text: Winwood's eldest daughter, Mary Clare, in 2011 wedded businessman Ben Elliot, who later became the Co-Chairman of the Conservative Party. The couple have two sons. Winwood's daughter Lilly Winwood is a singer; she was featured with him performing a duet of his song "Higher Love" in a Hershey commercial. She was the opening act and sang backup on multiple songs during her father's 2018 Greatest Hits Live tour.


title: Lamb (2021 film)

text: Lamb () is a 2021 folk horror film directed by , who also co-wrote the screenplay with Sjón. The film’s plot is about the birth of a human/sheep hybrid of mysterious origin and the couple who adopts the child as their own. An international co-production between Iceland, Sweden, and Poland, the film stars Noomi Rapace, and marks Valdimar's feature-length directorial debut. Rapace and Béla Tarr act as executive producers. After premiering at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival, the film was released in Iceland on 24 September 2021. It was selected as the Icelandic entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 94th Academy Awards.


title: Lamb (2021 film)

text: In Iceland, a herd of horses is spooked by an unknown, loudly-breathing entity that makes its way to a barn. Later, farmer María and her husband Ingvar are shocked when one of their pregnant sheep gives birth to a human/sheep hybrid with a mostly human body and a lamb's head and right arm.


title: Lamb (2021 film)

text: María and Ingvar take the hybrid infant in as their own and grow to love her as their own child, naming her Ada after Maria's deceased daughter. Ada's biological mother becomes a nuisance, attempting to contact Ada constantly and loitering outside the couple's home. Shortly after an incident where Ada goes missing and is later found next to the mother, María shoots Ada's mother and buries her body in a shallow, unmarked grave. Unbeknownst to her, Ingvar's brother Pétur, who arrives at the farmhouse shortly before the killing, witnesses the incident before sleeping in the barn.


title: Lamb (2021 film)

text: Pétur, who makes sexual advances towards María, is very disturbed by Ada and maintains the belief that "it's an animal, not a child". Ingvar claims the whole situation has given them happiness. Increasingly angered and disturbed by María and Ingvar's attachment to Ada, Pétur takes her on an early morning walk while everyone is asleep with the intention of shooting her. After having a tearful change of heart, however, he is later seen soundly sleeping with Ada and soon becomes an uncle to her.


title: Lamb (2021 film)

text: One evening, while María, Pétur, and Ingvar are having a drunken party, Ada witnesses the unknown entity from before near the barn. The entity then proceeds to kill the family's dog before taking the family's gun. After the party, a drunk Ingvar goes to bed. Pétur makes sexual advances towards María once again. When she rejects his advances, Pétur reveals that he witnessed María killing Ada's sheep mother, trying to blackmail María into having sex with him by threatening to reveal this to Ada.


title: Lamb (2021 film)

text: María pretends to be seduced by Pétur in order to lock him in a closet. María drives him to the bus stop the next morning and sends him away, insisting she is committed to a new start with her family. After waking up to find María and Pétur missing, Ingvar takes Ada to fix the broken tractor. On their way back home, the entity, revealed to be a ram/man hybrid and Ada's biological father, emerges and shoots Ingvar in the neck, before taking a tearful Ada with him and walking away into the wilderness.


title: Lamb (2021 film)

text: María returns home and finds that Ingvar and Ada are missing. She searches for the two and discovers Ingvar before he dies, and despairs at the loss of her husband and new child. María searches the wilderness in vain, before closing her tear-filled eyes.


title: Lamb (2021 film)

text: In February 2019, Noomi Rapace and Hilmir Snær Guðnason had joined the cast of the film, with Valdimar Jóhannsson directing from a screenplay he wrote alongside Sjón.


title: Lamb (2021 film)

text: In June 2020, the film was sold across Europe in the New Europe Film Sales agency. The film was picked up by distributors in Czech Republic (Artcam), France (The Jokers), Switzerland (Filmcoopi), Slovakia (ASFK), Germany (Koch Films), Poland (Gutek Film), Benelux (The Searchers), Hungary (Vertigo), Austria (Filmladen), Denmark (Camera Film), Lithuania (Scanorama), former Yugoslavia (Five Stars/Demiurg), Estonia (Must Käsi) and Latvia (Kino Bize) with MUBI acquiring the distribution rights for Latin America (excluding Mexico), Turkey, India, the UK and Ireland. In July 2021, A24 acquired North American distribution rights to the film.


title: Lamb (2021 film)

text: The film had its world premiere on 13 July 2021 as part of the official selection at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival in the "Un Certain Regard" section. It was released in the United States on 8 October 2021. The film also had a special screening of BFI London Film Festival on 15 October 2021


title: Lamb (2021 film)

text: Although the film was not released in Hong Kong, the Mandarin title used in the Taiwanese market () drew attention from Hong Kong media on the Internet for being homonymous with "member", a euphemism for penis (), with social media users joking about the awkwardness of mentioning the title and coming up with other phallic puns. A meme emerged where various pictures were edited to resemble the film's poster and given similar titles that were also puns, often on various explicit and obscene words; additionally, a government environmental mascot, , used the meme on a Facebook post calling for less wasteful use of notebooks. Writing for "The News Lens", Bruce Lai identified aspects of the film that fit with this interpretation of the title, connecting the entity (Ada's father) with beings in Greek mythology such as satyrs and fauns, particularly the god Pan, that exhibit a similar half-human, half-animal appearance as well as hyper-masculine characteristics, and perceived María's relationship with Ada as trying to fill the absence of her human daughter, drawing parallels to penis envy.


title: Lamb (2021 film)

text: In the United States and Canada, "Lamb" was released alongside "No Time to Die" and was debuted to $1 million from 583 theaters, finishing seventh and marking the best-ever opening weekend for an Icelandic film in the U.S.


title: Lamb (2021 film)

text: David Fear of "Rolling Stone" described the film as "the odd, unsettling, soon-to-be-your-cult-movie-of-choice straight outta Iceland", and wrote: "It’s the sweetest, most touching waking nightmare you’ve ever experienced." Jeannette Catsoulis of "The New York Times" called the film an "atmospheric debut feature", and added that it "plays like a folk tale and thrums like a horror movie." She wrote: "Slow-moving and inarguably nutty, "Lamb" nevertheless wields its atavistic power with the straightest of faces". Michael O'Sullivan of "The Washington Post" also described the film as a "haunting, atmospheric feature debut", and wrote: "Johannsson has a way of imbuing everything — animate and inanimate, even an empty doorway — with a kind of living, breathing spirit." He gave the film a score of 3/4 stars. Katie Walsh of the "Los Angeles Times" wrote: "Ominous mountains look down upon the pastoral arena where this fantastical yet meditative rural drama plays out; it’s a modern folk tale about the strange realities of life and death that such a closeness to nature affords." Joe Morgenstern of "The Wall Street Journal" described the film as "a shaggy lamb story expertly told." Kevin Maher of "The Times" gave the film 4/5 stars, writing: "The director, Valdimar Johannsson, treats the admittedly ridiculous material with a convincing, deadpan seriousness and is supported at every step by his star performer on impeccable form."


title: Lamb (2021 film)

text: Richard Brody of "The New Yorker" was more critical of the film, saying that it "preens and strains to be admired even as it reduces its characters to pieces on a game board and its actors to puppets." Barry Hertz of "The Globe and Mail" criticized the film's ending as being "like a parody of an A24 horror movie", and wrote: "I won’t make the obvious joke and say it’s baaad. But its sheep thrills are mutton to write home about, either." Alison Willmore of "Vulture" wrote: "By the time the final act rolls around, "Lamb" approaches the idea that there’s a price that must be paid with a shrugging diffidence rather than impending doom. It’s such an underwhelming conclusion to a film with such a compelling start."


title: Lamb (2021 film)

text: Some critics have compared the film to a reversal of the Ancient Greek Minotaur myth, further linking the mythology of "Lamb" to Hellenic origins.


title: Sunny Deol

text: Ajay Singh Deol (born 19 October 1956), better known by his stage name Sunny Deol, is an Indian actor, film director, producer, politician and current Member of Parliament from Gurdaspur (Lok Sabha constituency) of Punjab, India. As an actor, he has worked in more than 100 Hindi films and earned the image of an angry action hero. He went on to star in numerous successful films in the 1980s and 1990s and is considered as one of the top stars of that time. He starred in several blockbuster movies such as "Ghayal", "Darr", "Damini", "Jeet", "", ""Ziddi", "Border" and "". Deol has won two National Film Award for Best Actor and two Filmfare Awards.


title: Sunny Deol

text: Deol made his debut opposite fellow debutante Amrita Singh in "Betaab" (1983), for which he received a Filmfare Best Actor Award nomination. With his portrayal of an amateur boxer wrongly accused of his brother's murder in Rajkumar Santoshi's "Ghayal" in 1990, Deol gained wide recognition and praise and won the Filmfare Award for Best Actor and the National Film Award – Special Jury Award / Special Mention (Feature Film). His portrayal of a lawyer in the film "Damini – Lightning" (1993) won him the National Film Award for Best Supporting Actor and the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor. Anil Sharma's "" (2001), in which Deol portrayed a lorry driver who falls in love with a Pakistani Muslim girl, was the highest-grossing Bollywood film ever at the time of its release, and garnered him a Filmfare Best Actor Award nomination.


title: Sunny Deol

text: Sunny Deol was born on 19 October 1956, in the village of Sahnewal in Punjab, India in a Punjabi Jat family, to Bollywood actor Dharmendra and Parkash Kaur.


title: Sunny Deol

text: He has a younger brother Bobby Deol and two sisters Vijayta and Ajeeta who are settled in California. Hema Malini is his step-mother. Actress Esha Deol and Ahana Deol are his half-sisters. His cousin Abhay Deol is also an actor.


title: Sunny Deol

text: Sunny Deol is married to Pooja Deol (aka Lynda Deol) and the couple has two sons, Karan and Rajveer. Karan was an assistant director on "Yamla Pagla Deewana 2" and has rapped in a song sung by Diljit Dosanjh in the film. Karan Deol has made his Bollywood debut with the Hindi-language feature film "Pal Pal Dil Ke Paas".


title: Sunny Deol

text: Deol made his debut in the 1983 romantic film "Betaab" in which role he was praised and he was nominated for best actor at Filmfare Awards. Deol has appeared in Rahul Rawail's "Arjun" (1985), in which he played the titular role of an unemployed youngster. The film went on to become a major hit and established Sunny Deol's status as an action hero. In 1986 he appeared alongside his father in "Sultanat". In the final years of the decade he appeared in several hits including "Dacait" (1987), "Yateem" (1988) and "Paap Ki Duniya" (1988). In 1989, he had back to back hits with Rajiv Rai's "Tridev" and Pankaj Parashar's "ChaalBaaz". He even won his first Filmfare Award for Best Actor in Rajkumar Santoshi's 1990 film "Ghayal". He paired with Aditya Pancholi in "Vishnu-Devaa" (1991). From 1992 to 1997, he gave back to back hits with films like "Lootere", "Darr", "Jeet", "", "Border" and "Ziddi". In 1999 he made his directorial debut with "Dillagi" starring himself, his brother and Urmila Matondkar.