[Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 113 (Monday, July 13, 2026)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3728-S3729]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                       Remembering Lindsey Graham

  Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I come to the floor today with a heavy 
heart. I look to my right, and I see a desk which we in the Senate 
refer to and know as the John Calhoun desk. It is covered by a black 
shroud, and on top of that shroud is a bowl of white roses. That is 
Lindsey Graham's desk.
  It is difficult to believe that Lindsey Graham is no longer here with 
us, that we won't run into him at a meeting today or share a joke with 
him at this afternoon's vote.
  The halls of the Senate already feel empty without him, and I know I 
am not alone in that feeling. He was a friend to so many of us on both 
sides of the aisle. I know that I am not the only one who finds it 
difficult to imagine the Senate without Lindsey Graham.
  The events of Lindsey's life have been well-documented over the past 
couple of days: his humble beginnings in South Carolina; sharing a 
single room with the rest of his family, behind his family's bar; his 
guardianship of his younger sister Darline after the untimely death of 
their parents; his long service in the Air Force, the South Carolina 
Air National Guard, and the Air Force Reserve; his career in politics, 
first as a member of the South Carolina House of Representatives, then 
as a Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, where I served with 
him for 6 years, and then in the Senate, where he was just completing 
his fourth term.
  In the Senate, Lindsey distinguished himself as a staunch 
conservative--and a fierce advocate for South Carolina--but also as 
someone who was willing to work across the aisle to find common ground 
and to reach solutions.
  A lawyer by trade, he served as chairman of the Senate Judiciary 
Committee from 2019 to 2021, where he helped confirm a Supreme Court 
Justice and numerous Federal judges--the kind of judges who believe in 
following the law and the Constitution, instead of legislating policy 
from the bench.
  Most of all, of course, Lindsey was known for his national security 
and foreign policy work. There was no bigger believer in America's role 
in the world. He was confident that the United States could be a force 
for good, and he gave everything he had to ensuring that we would be.
  He was a friend and defender of freedom-loving peoples all over the 
world. He stood with the Ukrainian people in their fight against 
Russian aggression, and he died with his boots on, having just returned 
from a trip to Ukraine, his 10th.
  He believed fiercely in the importance of a strong national defense--
in ensuring that our country and our military men and women were always 
prepared to deter and defeat any threat.
  But while there was always a lot made of his support for American 
hard power, he was also a big believer in the use of soft power: 
economic, diplomatic, and political solutions to the world's problems.
  I was fortunate to travel with him all over the world, including to 
Israel after Hamas' October 7 attack. And I saw firsthand the work that 
he did to promote American security and the security of freedom-loving 
peoples around the globe.
  And, of course, I don't need to tell anyone in this body that Lindsey 
was fearless in his commitment to the causes that he espoused. It 
didn't matter to him whether he would catch flack on an issue. He was 
undaunted by the politics if he believed he was right on the principle.
  Senator, warrior, patriot, statesman--words that will be written 
about Lindsey. But for me, most of all, he was my friend. ``Without 
friends''--Aristotle said--``no one would choose to live, [although] he 
had all other goods.''
  And it is difficult to count the ways in which Lindsey's friendship 
made this job richer and its burdens lighter. Lindsey was as loyal as 
they come and a trusted adviser. I could always rely on him for 
straight-talking advice. He never minced words or pulled punches. I 
could also rely on him for a steady flow of humor and encouragement. He 
always could make me laugh--always.
  In the last couple of years, he came to South Dakota twice, and, 
twice, we sat on the deck and watched the sun go down on Lake Oahe--a 
familiar scene to me but new to him.
  And as the stars came out, you could see the Milky Way overhead, and 
you could hear coyotes howling and rooster pheasants cackling down 
below.
  Lindsey's wit punctuated all of it, and I will cherish those memories 
for a long time to come.
  If there is any light to be found in this grief, it is this: that as 
a Christian like Lindsey, I know that death is not the end. The Apostle 
Paul writes:

       Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed 
     about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve 
     like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. For we believe 
     that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God 
     will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.

  Whereas another Graham once put it:

       Someday you will read or hear that Billy Graham is dead. 
     Don't you believe a word of it. I shall be more alive than I 
     am now. I will just have changed my address. I will have gone 
     into the presence of God.

  I will miss Lindsey's friendship more than I can say. We pray for his 
staff and for his family, whom he loved dearly and who loved him dearly 
in return.
  But I am comforted by the knowledge that in the end, he has just 
changed his address and that one day we will laugh together again.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Illinois.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, last week, I joined several of my 
colleagues from the Senate and from the House at the NATO summit in 
Ankara, Turkiye. It was a historic meeting in terms of the future of 
NATO and the future of Ukraine and so many other issues that relate to 
that critical and important alliance.
  Last Wednesday, we had a dinner that was hosted by the U.S. 
Ambassador to Turkiye, Tom Barrack. There must have been 50 or 60 
people there who all shared concerns of the summit conference. Among 
them were Members of Congress, Turkish leaders, and representatives of 
other countries around the world who had gone to that famous summit.
  At the heart of that dinner was my colleague and friend Senator 
Lindsey Graham. When I arrived that night, it was no surprise that he 
had been there before me and had been working the crowd. He had been 
speaking to each and every person who was there--business leaders and 
political leaders from all parts of the world--about his concerns.
  Lindsey was walking them through, one at a time, his vision on how we 
could end the war in Ukraine and the legislation we needed to 
accomplish that, which was typical of Lindsey Graham. We all shared 
that concern, but he was buzzing around that crowd like an aspiring 
candidate, convincing everybody that there was a way to end this war 
the right way.
  Only a few days after that dinner, my friend Lindsey Graham passed 
away. It was a shock. I would like to take a moment to recognize his 
lifetime of public service both in the State of South Carolina and for 
our Nation.
  I served with Lindsey Graham in the Senate for more than two decades, 
and during that time, I counted him as a trusted friend. I will tell 
you that my friends and supporters back in Illinois many times would 
just shake their heads and say: Durbin, what are you doing with 
Lindsey? You shouldn't be working with him.

[[Page S3729]]

  They didn't know how the Senate works, and they certainly didn't know 
him.
  Lindsey, for many years, was the only Republican who was willing to 
cosponsor the DREAM Act, a bill that I introduced over 20 years ago and 
had reintroduced in successive Congresses, which provided protection to 
undocumented immigrants who had been brought to this country as 
children. His support took guts. At a time when issues surrounding 
immigration were becoming politically toxic, Lindsey stuck his neck out 
for me and for these young people. I will never ever forget it.
  I will also never forget a meeting that Lindsey and I had with 
President Trump in his first term in 2018. It was a meeting to discuss 
a possible comprehensive immigration reform package. It didn't go well 
at all. President Trump made what I considered to be profane comments 
about some immigrants, but I won't repeat them here.
  Lindsey, while sitting next to me in the Oval Office, passionately, 
vocally, and with real commitment disagreed with the President, arguing 
that America is not defined by race or color but by its ideals and of 
the many contributions that immigrants have made to our Nation. He said 
to the President, as I sat right next to him in the Oval Office, that 
he was just wrong; that these people who are immigrants make a 
difference in America. It was the story of our country, and Lindsey 
said it was the story of his family.
  Lindsey spoke publicly about this interaction after it occurred, and 
despite the scorn that he earned from certain segments of the 
Republican base, he stuck to what he believed was right.
  When I happened to become the chairman of the Senate Judiciary 
Committee for 4 years, Lindsey Graham was my ranking Republican. He sat 
right next to me in every session of that committee. We had our share 
of disagreements over issues and nominees, but I knew that his word was 
always good. If he told me he was going to vote for something or some 
person, he did--he delivered--and we had a good working relationship 
between us--no cheap shots, no stabs in the back.
  He voted in favor of 75 percent of the judicial nominations that we 
considered while I was chair, and there were 235 lifetime appointments 
that came out of that committee. Even though they were nominated by a 
President from a different political party, he announced early on that, 
if I expect Democrats to vote for Republican nominees, I have to 
support Democratic nominees to show the same spirit of cooperation. And 
he did. He kept his word. That was who Lindsey was. He was proud to be 
a fierce Republican partisan, but he never lost sight of the need to 
work across the aisle to make a difference in the lives of Americans.
  Loretta and I send our condolences to Lindsey's family and his legion 
of friends in South Carolina and around the world.
  He was an extraordinary Member of the Senate. He helped to make it 
work. There was never any bipartisan meeting of a gang--or however you 
would characterize it--during which Lindsey wasn't within its ranks.
  I remember when John McCain and he led the Republican side of an 
immigration reform effort, and I was part of that on the Democratic 
side. After months--literally months--of negotiating, we brought a 
package to the floor, which passed with an overwhelming bipartisan 
vote, showing that we could do things like that and that we should 
still be able to. For those things to occur, it is not just a matter of 
having a good idea; you need good people who are willing to be 
respectful of one another and to work hard to find common ground. 
Lindsey was one of those people.