WASHINGTON (AP) — When Sen. Lindsey Graham’s phone number popped up on his call list, Sen. Chuck Schumer said his heart skipped a beat.It was shortly after the 2012 presidential election and Republicans had lost badly to President Barack Obama.Graham was calling with an outlandish proposal — “getting the band back together” — on a bipartisan plan for immigration reforms.The move was classic Graham.He has been called the “bridge.” The “dealmaker.” The senator at the center of all the action. And, more recently, “the Trump whisperer.”Graham embodied a sort of institutional secret sauce that kept the Senate moving — and talking and arguing and laughing — with his hyperkinetic insistence on doing something when the place would otherwise seem destined to grind to a halt of atrophy and dysfunction.After Graham’s sudden death over the weekend, it is unclear who, if anyone, will fill his role.“Few have been able to frustrate and anger, amuse and engage me in a single conversation the way Lindsey could,” said Sen. Chris Coons, the Democrat from Delaware, who celebrated Graham’s birthday over dinner after the NATO summit in Turkey just days before the South Carolina senator died.“I will miss having him as a partner in the Senate.”
Bridge builder and 'Trump whisperer': Lindsey Graham's role in the Senate not easily filled
Lindsey Graham played a role in the Senate that won’t easily be filled. He was called the “bridge,” a dealmaker and, increasingly “the Trump whisperer.”
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