EXCLUSIVE: Pence pushes to rename bill for Lindsey Graham, recalls final talk: 'Bring Putin to the table'

By Fox News · Fox News

FIRST ON FOX: Former Vice President Mike Pence is calling on Congress to rename Sen. Lindsey Graham's signature Russia sanctions legislation after the late South Carolina Republican, telling Fox News Digital there would be "no more fitting tribute" to one of the Senate's most influential national security hawks. In an exclusive interview, Pence said Graham's years-long push for tougher sanctions against Russia should become both his legislative legacy and a permanent reminder of his unwavering support for Ukraine and America's allies. Pence argued Congress has a rare opportunity to honor Graham by passing the bipartisan sanctions package he spent years championing and sending it to President Donald Trump with the senator's name attached. GRAHAM REPORTEDLY REFUSED MEDICAL HELP BEFORE SCHEDULED TV APPEARANCE "I also believe it'd be altogether fitting to put Sen. Lindsey Graham's name on that bill," Pence told Fox News Digital. "Send it to the president, have him sign it into law." Pence said Graham viewed Russia's invasion of Ukraine as one of the defining geopolitical challenges of the era and believed economic pressure was essential to forcing Russian President Vladimir Putin to negotiate. "He never had any illusions about who we were dealing with — with Vladimir Putin," Pence said. The former vice president, who has traveled to Ukraine twice since Russia's invasion, said Graham understood that Ukraine represented "a frontier of freedom" and consistently pushed both Republican and Democratic administrations to stand firmly with America's allies. When asked whether the sanctions legislation could ultimately become Graham's greatest achievement, Pence said it may well define how history remembers the longtime senator. "I think it could be," Pence said. EUROPE BANKROLLS PUTIN'S WAR MACHINE EVEN AS NATO RACES TO BOLSTER DEFENSES He pointed to Graham's decades-long advocacy for Israel, Ukraine and a stronger NATO alliance, saying the senator remained remarkably consiste…