WASHINGTON: Sen. Lindsey Graham, the son of pool hall owners who rose to become one of his generation’s more influential US politicians at home and abroad, is being eulogized Tuesday as “a true American original” during memorial services in Washington.
Graham’s flag-draped casket arrived for a tribute at the US Capitol, where the Republican served for more than 30 years as an indefatigable dealmaker who talked and laughed and badgered his colleagues into action. Later, President Donald Trump joined foreign leaders at Washington National Cathedral, a testament to Graham’s stature on the global stage.
Trump called Graham “a giant of the United States Senate, a true American original who left us much too soon.”
In mostly prepared remarks, the president described his onetime presidential rival turned ally as “the first person to make you laugh and one of the last people that you’ve really ever wanted to fight.”
Trump told the story of how he had publicly disclosed Graham’s cell phone number on the campaign trail, reciting the number in the cathedral, but said the senator had the last laugh because “Lindsey did not stop calling me for the next 10 years.”
