Trump, Zelensky and Netanyahu attend US Senator Lindsey Graham’s funeral

WASHINGTON - The casket of Lindsey Graham, the late Republican senator, was carried into the Washington National Cathedral on July 28 for a funeral service attended by US President Donald Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and scores of senior officials.

Earlier in the day, lawmakers paid tribute at the Capitol Rotunda, remembering him as gregarious, funny and persuasive, a man whose outspoken support for an assertive foreign policy made him one of the party’s last prominent hawks.

Trump, whom Graham denounced early in his political career before becoming a staunch supporter, is due to speak at the funeral, attended by leaders of some of the allied countries Graham forcefully argued the US should support during conflict.

“It really ended up being a great friendship,” Trump said earlier in the day in an interview with Fox News, praising Graham for his help navigating partisan politics in Washington.

“If I needed a Democrat, he could usually produce that Democrat if I had to have them in an emergency. He was a great politician and a great gentleman.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (centre) attending the funeral for the late US Senator Lindsey Graham with US President Donald Trump and other leaders, on July 28. PHOTO: AFP

Graham, a South Carolina Republican who died suddenly from a heart ailment on July 11 at age 71, was a defence hawk who regularly called for an interventionist US role on the world stage and strongly backed both Israel and Ukraine, whose leaders travelled to Washington to pay tribute on July 28.

Powers of persuasion

At the Capitol ceremony, Vice-President J.D. Vance recalled him as a compelling figure in the Senate whose risque jokes could make him laugh to the point of abdominal cramps.

“Because he loved people, he saw that the Senate, at its very best, could be a deliberative body geared towards persuading people,” Vance said.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune said “there was no one, no one, who took his job more seriously than Lindsey Graham, but also, no one was more capable of cracking up a room during the work week here in Washington.”

They also recalled Graham’s charm working on leaders of US allies. Graham met with Zelensky in Kyiv only a day before his death, the 10th time he had visited Ukraine since Russia’s 2022 invasion.

On July 28, the Senate was expected to vote on a bipartisan package of new sanctions on Russia that Graham spent his final days trying to push across the finish line.

Graham was one of Trump’s most visible allies, making frequent appearances on cable television news shows to tout the administration’s policies. In recent months, he had been a stalwart defender of the unpopular Iran war.

Sister vies to succeed him in Senate

Graham had been running for a fifth term in the Senate after winning the South Carolina Republican primary in June.

His sister, Darline Graham, was appointed by South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster to fill the remainder of his term.

She has announced her intention to seek a full six-year term in November, with Trump’s endorsement.

The Democratic candidate, pediatrician Annie Andrews, is considered a long shot given South Carolina’s strong Republican lean.

An attendee holding the programme on July 28 for a Congressional tribute to late US Senator Lindsey Graham, at the US Capitol in Washington. PHOTO: AFP

Lindsey Graham served as his sister’s guardian after their parents died when she was still a girl.

A former Air Force lawyer and a member of South Carolina’s Air National Guard, Graham served in the state legislature and the US House of Representatives before winning his Senate seat in 2002.

He briefly ran for president in the 2016 election, when he was adamantly opposed to Trump’s candidacy; he called the future president a “race-baiting, ⁠xenophobic, religious bigot” on CNN.

But he eventually became one of Trump’s most loyal backers in the Senate, and the two were frequent golf partners.

In addition to the July 28 ceremonies in Washington, there will be funeral services for Graham on July 29 in South Carolina, where he will be buried. REUTERS