{"id":5130,"date":"2026-07-28T16:37:38","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T16:37:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/homebuyerrelocation.com\/?p=5130"},"modified":"2026-07-28T16:37:38","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T16:37:38","slug":"lindsey-grahams-colleagues-reflected-on-the-loss-of-a-towering-figure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/homebuyerrelocation.com\/?p=5130","title":{"rendered":"Lindsey Graham\u2019s colleagues reflected on the loss of a \u2018towering figure\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Washington bid farewell Tuesday to a rare partisan peacemaker, with memorial services celebrating the exceptional life of the late Sen. Lindsey Graham.<\/p>\n

Read more SNAP\u2019s fraud problem meets a slow fix: Chip cards arrive state by state<\/a><\/p>\n

With his coffin draped in the American flag, congressional colleagues gathered in the Capitol\u2019s rotunda to remember the man who made them rethink positions, made them laugh and, most of all, made them connect with one another.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was no one that took a job more seriously than Lindsey Graham,\u201d said Senate Majority Leader John Thune. \u201cBut also, no one was more capable of cracking up a room.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Graham was 71 when he passed away on July 11 from a heart emergency, suddenly and tragically ending more than three decades in Congress, including more than 20 years as a senator from South Carolina.<\/p>\n

His seat has been filled by his sister, Darline Graham, but colleagues said his presence in the chamber cannot be replaced.<\/p>\n

\u201cLindsey was a towering figure here in the Senate and on the international stage,\u201d said Mr. Thune, South Dakota Republican.<\/p>\n

Mr. Graham was an acolyte of the late Sen. John McCain, an Arizona Republican and fellow defense hawk. They shared a willingness to buck their party, and an ability to forge legislation across party lines, with campaign finance, immigration legislation and military policy as particular interests for both men.<\/p>\n

In the second term of President George W. Bush, it was McCain and Mr. Graham who pushed the administration into the second troop surge in Iraq, which helped stabilize the troubled nation\u2019s security situation.<\/p>\n

After McCain\u2019s death, Mr. Graham emerged as the most prominent hawk in the Senate.<\/p>\n

Mr. Graham also gained a reputation as a sort of Trump-whisperer, able to reach the mercurial president despite some very public disagreements and differences.<\/p>\n

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He was among the proudest of pro-life lawmakers, staking out positions and pushing policies that thrilled the party\u2019s conservatives, even as GOP strategists worried about the politics.<\/p>\n

But he drew the ire of conservatives for his work on bills to legalize illegal immigrants and his willingness to vote for nominees of Democratic presidents.<\/p>\n

Justice Elena Kagan, an Obama pick for the Supreme Court, credits Mr. Graham with securing her confirmation both with his vote and a classic Graham-induced moment humanizing her during her confirmation hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee.<\/p>\n

Mr. Graham had asked Justice Kagan what she was doing on Christmas \u2014 a question she took as a predicate for asking him about the intricacies of the criminal case against Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the so-called \u201cunderwear bomber,\u201d who\u2019d attempted to bring down a plane on Christmas Day 2009.<\/p>\n

Mr. Graham had other ideas.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just asked you where you were at on Christmas,\u201d he said, smiling.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, like all Jews, I was probably at a Chinese restaurant,\u201d she replied.<\/p>\n

Justice Kagan, in an appearance before Congress this month, said Mr. Graham accomplished a hard thing \u2014 he made her funny.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople said to me afterward that exchange with Senator Graham was the moment my confirmation was sealed,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Vice President J.D. Vance on Tuesday said Mr. Graham sealed the confirmation of another pick, Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, a Trump nominee who was struggling after unsubstantiated accusations of a decades-old sexual assault arose.<\/p>\n

Mr, Graham, who\u2019d made a point in the past of supporting nominees from Democratic presidents, unleashed all of his considerable rhetorical fury on Justice Kavanaugh\u2019s opposition, calling him a clearly qualified legal mind who was being ambushed by character assassination.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe that he saved that nomination,\u201d Mr. Vance said. \u201cLindsey didn\u2019t just earn a lot of headlines, he actually persuaded people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more U.S. kicks off major study of American force posture in Europe<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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