Episode July 13, 2026 2 hr 44 min

Full Episode - How Lindsey Graham Should Be Remembered + Can The Law Succeed Where Politics Fails?

Chuck Todd devotes much of this episode to a rich, personal reflection on the death of Senator Lindsey Graham at 71 — a figure who can only be understood if you separate the ideologues from the pure politicians, because Graham was unambiguously the latter. Graham always wanted to be in the middle of the Republican Party, treated his Senate seat as something as precious to him as a spouse, and was a genuine political creature who could nonetheless work with everyone, partnering with both Trump and Obama across his career. Chuck shares personal memories — interviewing Graham alongside John McCain, the two of them giving outsized attention to the Steele Dossier; Graham losing his parents in his 20s and raising his 13-year-old sister; even reassuring Chuck’s own wife about her worries over Trump — and argues that Graham, for all his capitulations, actually served as one of the few moderating forces on Trump. He lays out the very real political fallout: Todd Blanche's confirmation as Attorney General is now in serious jeopardy, Graham leaves a massive vacuum in the GOP conference, and his South Carolina seat could actually be competitive for Democrat Annie Andrews if the Republican primary lurches far enough to the right. From there Chuck draws a series of parallels between American and British politics — Labour returning to power on a promise of competence and stability, Nigel Farage (like Trump) trying to convert political fame into personal wealth, and the satirical candidate "Count Binface" holding up a mirror to a political culture that has become pure theater — musing, only half-jokingly, that America could use its own Count Binface. Chuck closes on a sober note about the U.S.-Israel relationship, which he believes is heading for a real retreat: he recalls how close the region came to a two-state peace two decades ago, how the collapse of that moment allowed radicalism to escalate on both sides until each could argue the other doesn't want peace, and points to Rahm Emanuel's recent speech in Israel — warning that Israel must articulate a vision for what comes after the war or risk isolating itself from younger and moderate Americans — as the sound of someone trying to save a political center that vanishes the moment people conclude moderates don't have answers.

Then, John Morgan — founder of Morgan & Morgan, one of the largest personal injury firms in the country & author of "Life is Luck: Lessons From a Paperboy and How to Improve Your Luck" joins the Chuck Toddcast for a wide-ranging conversation about civil litigation, the failures of government regulation, and his plan to launch a third party in Florida. Morgan makes the case that civil litigation has grown precisely because government has failed to regulate — social media is a genuine threat to human wellbeing (especially for children), monopolies are squeezing consumers, and processed foods, he argues, are the new tobacco: extremely harmful and ripe for legal reckoning. He offers a candid, colorful assessment of his former firm member RFK Jr. — "smart and crazy," a man who falls down some rabbit holes but also champions legitimate causes — and walks through the thorny reality that vaccine makers enjoy total indemnity while sovereign immunity exists in some form in all 50 states. Morgan is refreshingly honest about the ethics of his own industry, arguing that ads gloating about settlement numbers are a mistake because the real goal of a settlement is to give someone back something they lost, not to celebrate a payday.

The heart of the conversation is Morgan's plan to launch a new third party in Florida called "Common Ground," rooted in his conviction that the two-party system itself is what's fundamentally broken in America. Morgan argues that moderates should function as the tiebreakers in a polarized system — that picking up just a few seats could turn an uncommitted moderate bloc into a genuine fulcrum of power in Congress — and explains why he'd rather build something new than partner with the existing Forward Party. He handicaps Florida's political landscape with an insider's candor: Byron Donalds likely wins the governorship but it'll be close, the Charlie Crist party-switch playbook never worked, and he's genuinely unsure whether voters can find David Jolly credible after his own party change.. Morgan laments that too many people now enter politics for the pension and salary rather than public service, criticizes DeSantis for appointing cronies as university presidents, and argues age limits are overdue because government should be about the future and very few politicians remain effective past 70. Along the way he explains why he thinks Texas Democrats fielded a more viable ticket than Florida's (James Talarico, he says, simply has "it"), why Andy Beshear won in Kentucky, why charter schools are about money rather than choice, and why DeSantis's property tax proposal could become a Brexit-style case study in voters making decisions that make no sense once the consequences arrive.

Finally, Chuck hops into the ToddCast Time Machine to break down the messy build up and coalitions involved in the Spanish civil war, and what lessons modern America can take from it. He also answers listeners’ questions in the “Ask Chuck” segment and make a proposal for a change to the baseball Hall of Fame.

Get John Morgan's book here:

https://www.amazon.com/Audible-Life-is-Luck/dp/B0H2K52H4G/ref=sr_1_1?crid=LF7S7OGAT46F&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.CaRKVB4mHJGTS0bVFd7ONcU6YfsmpGl_tDncLiWRzCNecvHPOVtdrMbXsFl_LNyLxyW8nLRxXL3j5wdKGrHq7hSKazupgR14cC3u74xjkQpTUw2_xdJsVkC21K2kobaEZpdGZJsOkB5HdKgNBvyzjcb0eh8sdqhprrTbUo_1Fss.iLY1CiUpIpHB0Z1TbM0GJH2COy5EqaDcd3D_ItY0mfg&dib_tag=se&keywords=John+Morgan+life+is+luck&qid=1784135091&s=books&sprefix=john+morgan+life+is+luck%2Cstripbooks%2C177&sr=1-1

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Timeline:

00:00 Chuck Todd’s introduction

04:15 Senator Lindsey Graham dead at 71

04:45 Reactions to Graham are filtered through one’s personal politics

05:30 There are ideologues and there are politicians. Graham was the latter

06:45 Graham always wanted to be in the middle of the Republican party

09:00 Graham’s senate seat was as important to him as a spouse

11:15 Certain people are just political creatures, like Graham and Cruz

12:45 Graham was able to work with everyone on both sides of the aisle

13:30 Graham worked with both Trump and Obama