A U.S. Capitol Police honor guard stands watch around the casket during a Congressional tribute to the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday.
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President Trump heralded the late Sen. Lindsey Graham as a “legend” and “giant of the U.S. Senate” during a funeral service at the Washington National Cathedral on Tuesday.
Trump’s remarks came on the first of two days of remembrances for Graham, who died earlier this month at the age of 71.
Trump expressed fondness for the man who once had harsh words for him when the pair competed for the GOP presidential nomination in 2016. He recalled sharing Graham’s personal cell phone number in a particularly heated moment with millions of people – “something I shouldn’t have done,” he admitted, before once again reciting the digits during the ceremony, to much laughter in the sanctuary.
“But it was Lindsey who had the last laugh because while I blew up his phone for one day, we became great friends, and Lindsey did not stop calling me for the next 10 years,” Trump said with a smile.
Graham, a legislative powerhouse for over three decades in Congress, grew to become one of the president’s closest confidantes, particularly on matters of foreign policy.
“He never saw a war that he didn’t like,” Trump said of the hawkish senator. “Only friends would understand that. But he wanted it for the good of our country.”
President Trump delivers remarks during the funeral service for the late U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham at the Washington National Cathedral on Tuesday.
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Trump spoke about Graham’s role in shepherding his signature tax and spending bill through the Senate last summer, quipping: “a lot of Lindsey goodies in there, I can tell you.”
He recalled a lesson Graham said he learned from his parents’ pool hall business that included a liquor store: “You have to be funny enough that people will keep coming back, and you have to be tough enough that you can stay in business and thrive. A very difficult combination. For his entire storied career, that’s exactly who Lindsey Graham was. He was the first person to make you laugh, and one of the last people that you really ever wanted to fight.”
“He died doing the work he was born to do,” Trump said, referencing Graham’s trip to Ukraine one day before his death. Graham announced a newly-brokered deal with the White House on a sanctions deal he believed would compel Russia to end its assault on Ukraine.
That sanctions bill has been a priority for Republican leaders in the Senate, who plan to hold a procedural vote on the legislation on Tuesday after the end of services in Washington.
‘A family man’
Dozens of members of Congress, along with members of the Cabinet, attended the funeral. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh was also in attendance; Graham was one of Kavanaugh’s most vocal defenders during his confirmation process.
Several of Graham’s staff members served as honorary pallbearers for the South Carolina senator.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy were both in attendance — a reminder of Graham’s longtime advocacy for both nations, and his interventionist foreign policy approach.
Sen. Darline Graham, R-S.C., pays her respects to her brother in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol.
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Among the other speakers was Emillie Boggs Roberts, who gave an emotional tribute to her uncle.
“Lindsey was, without a doubt, a family man. His world revolved around my mother, his family, and those he considered such,” she said.
She shared the story of how after Graham’s parents died, he became the primary caretaker for his teenaged sister Darline Graham, who has now been appointed to serve out the remainder of his term.
“Lindsey became brother, father and mother to my mother overnight,” she said. “My mother said Lindsey would come home to visit every weekend from the University of South Carolina in Columbia while she was living with their aunt and uncle in Seneca. That is over a two-hour trip, one way, every weekend, as a young man in college. And that was only the beginning. Without a second thought, Lindsey made sure that he was there for his little sister, and he never stopped. Lindsey was always there for all of us.”
Congress says goodbye to Graham at the Capitol
Earlier Tuesday, with a flag-draped coffin at the center of the Capitol Rotunda, Republican senators past and present remembered Graham in remarks that celebrated his far-reaching influence — from his home state of South Carolina to the international stage.
Graham’s former colleagues shared memories of him as a friend, a congressional mainstay and a leading voice in U.S. foreign policy.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., highlighted the scope of Graham’s work over his three decades in Congress, from his role in judicial confirmations to his fierce defense of Ukraine to his support of the anti abortion rights movement.
With Graham’s death, a “powerful voice” and a magnetic friend of the Senate was gone, Thune said.
“There was no one — no one — who took his job more seriously than Lindsey Graham. But also, no one was more capable of cracking up a room,” Thune said. Graham was often the first call for joint Senate dinners, where “the conversations and the laughs always flowed at any meal where Lindsey Graham was present.”
Vice President J.D. Vance, who served alongside Graham in the Senate, said it was impossible not to like his former colleague. Vance described a heated argument the two once had over funding for Ukraine.
An Armed Forces Body Bearer Team moves Graham’s casket in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol.
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Vance assumed Graham would never support another piece of his legislation. But he was wrong.
“It was impossible not to like him — that swashbuckling, infectious laugh, that attitude, that passion that so many others have talked about,” Vance said.
New Hampshire Gov. Kelly Ayotte, a close friend who served with Graham in the Senate, said he was exceptional at developing personal relationships with those who disagreed with him. Ayotte, who comes from a military family, said his work for the armed forces will never be forgotten.
An alum of the University of South Carolina’s law school, Graham served in the U.S. military for more than three decades, including as an Air Force judge advocate. Ayotte said he often joked about her status as a freshman senator.
“Lindsey never missed an opportunity to remind me that he outranked me — not only in service but also in his office in the upper chamber,” Ayotte said. “And you know what, he had earned that right.”
Graham’s remains will be flown back to South Carolina for a funeral service on Wednesday at the First Baptist Church in Columbia.
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