By admin 
President Donald Trump mourned his close friend and political ally Lindsey Graham, a powerful U.S. Senator from South Carolina during his Washington, D.C. funeral.
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The president eulogized Graham during a service at the Washington National Cathedral on Tuesday afternoon.
“In a city where politicians often become jaded and cynical, Lindsey Graham never lost the old-fashioned American idealism that brought him to the highest levels of government and life,” Trump said. “He took his duty seriously without taking himself too seriously.”
Appearing to read from a script, Trump called Graham a “giant” of the U.S. Senate and reflected on his life growing up in rural South Carolina and his ascent in congress.
“But even though Lindsey’s life was cut short while he was still so full of vim and vigor, there can be no doubt that he lived absolutely to the fullest,” Trump said. “He died doing the work he was born to do. He was truly a great politician, serving the country he loved to serve so deeply.”
Trump said Graham learned early lessons about governing and diplomacy growing up in his family’s pool hall, restaurant, bar and liquor store in Central, a small town near Clemson University. Like many that eulogized Graham, Trump spoke about the late senator’s sense of humor.
He repeated a story where Graham picked up the bar’s phone where a regular patron’s wife was on the other end, asking about her husband’s whereabouts.
“The man instructed Lindsey, ‘Tell her I’m not here,’” Trump said. “And young Lindsey nodded and said into the phone to the wife, ‘he said to tell you that he’s not here.’ That was Lindsey.”
Trump and Graham grew to become close friends and allies, but they vehemently opposed one another when the two ran for president in 2016. Graham once called Trump a “a race-baiting, xenophobic religious bigot” in December 2015.
Trump recalled a story from the 2016 presidential campaign trail when he shared Graham’s personal cell phone number publicly, telling attendees it was probably something he “shouldn’t have done.” He repeated the phone number, 202-228-0292, during the service
Trump says Graham got the last laugh as, “Lindsey did not stop calling me for the next 10 years.”
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The pair’s relationship again was on ice after the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, when Graham later voted to certify President Joe Biden’s 2020 victory
“Trump and I, we’ve had a hell of a journey,” Graham said on the Senate floor Jan. 6, 2021. “I hate it to end this way.”
Trump also recounted what he considered one of Graham’s finest moment in the U.S. Senate: the late senator’s defense of Trump appointee Brett Kavanaugh during the lawyer’s controversial confirmation hearings to the U.S. Supreme Court. Kavanaugh was accused of sexually assaulting a classmate in high school, jeopardizing his rise to the high court.
“This is the most unethical sham since I’ve been in politics,” Graham said in an emotional speech during Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing.
Graham served as chair of the Judiciary Committee at the time, where he worked to confirm judges.
“It was a truly monumental moment in Senate history,” Trump said. “I believe it was Lindsey’s perhaps finest hour.”
Graham fiercely defended U.S. international allies, including Israel and Ukraine, a legacy Trump acknowledged in his eulogy. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attended the funeral in Washington, D.C. Tuesday.
“He had tremendous friendships all over the world,” Trump said. “It’s a testament to his towering impact that among those mourning him here today are leaders, presidents, prime ministers from all over the globe are sitting right here before you.”
Graham, 71, died suddenly July 11 from an aortic dissection — a tear in the aorta— due to arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease. He served in the U.S. Senate for more than two decades and was elected to the U.S. House and South Carolina state House. The late senator also served in the U.S. Air Force for 33 years.
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