U.S. President Donald Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were among the American and foreign dignitaries who paid respect to Lindsey Graham on Tuesday at the late South Carolina senator’s funeral service at the National Cathedral in Washington.
In his eulogy, Trump credited Graham, 71 who died unexpectedly from a heart issue at his Washington home earlier in July, as “a true American original.”
“For more than 30 years, nothing of consequence happened in this capital without Lindsey Graham knowing about it, nothing of significance happened anywhere in the world without Lindsey Graham having a view on it,” Trump said. “No bill became law in the most exceptional republic in human history without Lindsey Graham having a say in it.”
Graham was perhaps most noted for his views on foreign policy, in which he was a vociferous and sometimes lonely voice championing the causes of Israel, Ukraine, Syrian rebels, Kurds and Iranian dissidents.
Trump and the other speakers at the funeral noted that Graham, who ran for president against Trump in the 2016 Republican primary, had a talent for making friends despite political disagreements.
“Lindsey said something rather nasty on his flight to becoming the next president of the United States,” Trump said. “So naturally, I did something that I shouldn’t have done. I shared his personal cell phone number with the millions of people that happened to be watching that particular day as I made a very important speech—and I remember the number 202-228-0292, if anybody wants to give it a shot.”
“It was Lindsey who had the last laugh, because while I blew up his phone for one day, we became great friends,” he said. “Lindsey did not stop calling me for the next 10 years.”
Sean Hannity, the Fox News host, described Graham in his remarks as Israel’s strongest friend in the Senate and noted that Netanyahu traveled to Washington for the funeral.
“Lindsey would have been blown away that you took this long journey with your beautiful bride to be here today,” Hannity said.
“As long as I’ve known this man, Lindsey, he was often unfairly characterized as a warmonger,” Hannity said, alluding to Graham’s support for the war in Iraq and the recent conflict against Iran. “The truth was the opposite.”
“He understood right from wrong, good from evil and he knew, as President Trump knows, as Israel knows, as I know, there can be no path to peace until evil is defeated,” he said. “Evil, in this case, embodied in a death cult, an ideology, the world’s number one state-sponsor of terror.”
The Senate is expected to take up sanctions legislation later on Tuesday named in honor of Graham targeting Russia and Iran.
Some of Graham’s last words in a phone call hours before his death were reportedly that he “can’t die now,” because “I still need to do the Russia sanctions, get Iran sorted out and do Israeli-Saudi normalization.”
Eric Fingerhut, president and CEO of the Jewish Federations of North America, told JNS that Graham’s death was a “deep loss” to the American Jewish community and to supporters of Israel.
“The entire Jewish community feels that Senator Graham was a friend of ours and was with us on every issue—not just on Israel but also antisemitism and security in the Jewish community,” Fingerhut said.
“There really wasn’t anything that we needed to talk about that Senator Graham wasn’t the first call and always responsive and supportive,” he told JNS.
Earlier on Tuesday, a memorial service with Graham’s casket was held in the Capitol Rotunda for his Senate colleagues. On Wednesday, funeral services for Graham will be held in his native South Carolina.
