Latest / Gil I Am / President Trump's full speech at Sen. Lindsey Graham's funeral
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Here comes a President Trump, and his alliance with President
- 0:03Speaker 1: Trump in recent years made him be called the Trump Whisper.
- 0:12Speaker 2: And President Trump is now making his way up to
- 0:15Speaker 2: address those there, the great and the good, not just
- 0:19Speaker 2: from Washington, d C. But from around the world as well,
- 0:22Speaker 2: people who felt they owed Senator Lindsey Graham a debt
- 0:28Speaker 2: in their careers and their lives. Let's listen to what
- 0:30Speaker 2: the President has to say.
- 0:41Speaker 1: Thank you very much, Vice President Vance, members of the Cabinet,
- 0:47Speaker 1: members of the House and Senate, distinguished guests, Darlene, and
- 0:54Speaker 1: the entire Graham family.
- 0:57Speaker 3: I love you all. We gather in.
- 1:01Speaker 1: The deepest gratitude and profoundest sorrow to honor a beloved friend,
- 1:08Speaker 1: the devoted brother, a respected statesman, a giant of the
- 1:13Speaker 1: United States Senate, and a true American original who left
- 1:18Speaker 1: us much too soon. And that can only be the
- 1:25Speaker 1: one and only Lindsey Graham.
- 1:29Speaker 3: By the strength of his.
- 1:30Speaker 1: Steadfast convictions, the force of his magnetic personality, and the
- 1:35Speaker 1: goodness of his noble soul, Lindsay roads from a small
- 1:39Speaker 1: town in rural South Carolina, place he loved so much
- 1:45Speaker 1: to become a constant fixture of American politics at the
- 1:49Speaker 1: highest level, and a forced to be reckoned.
- 1:51Speaker 3: With all over the world. For more than thirty.
- 1:55Speaker 1: Years, nothing of consequence happened in his capital without Lindsay
- 2:00Speaker 1: Graham knowing about it. Nothing of significance happened anywhere in
- 2:05Speaker 1: the world without Lindsey Graham having a view on it,
- 2:10Speaker 1: And no bill became law in the most exceptional republic
- 2:13Speaker 1: in human history without Lindsay Graham.
- 2:16Speaker 3: Having a say in it. He was a man who.
- 2:20Speaker 1: Gave America the full measure of his good and mighty
- 2:23Speaker 1: heart until that heart itself just gave out. But even
- 2:30Speaker 1: though Lindsay's life was cut short while he was still
- 2:35Speaker 1: so full of vim and vigor, there can be no
- 2:39Speaker 1: doubt that he lived absolutely to the fullest.
- 2:43Speaker 3: He died doing the work he was born to do.
- 2:46Speaker 1: He was truly a great politician, serving the country he
- 2:50Speaker 1: loved to serve so deeply. He went out of the
- 2:56Speaker 1: peak of his career, the top of his game, as
- 2:59Speaker 1: a legend that everyone of us, many of us here
- 3:03Speaker 1: today blessed to know him, and a friend that none
- 3:07Speaker 1: of us will ever forget.
- 3:10Speaker 3: There was truly nobody like Lindsey Graham.
- 3:15Speaker 1: It was his hometown of Central South Carolina that Lindsay
- 3:20Speaker 1: first learned the art of politics.
- 3:23Speaker 3: His parents ran a bar.
- 3:25Speaker 1: And pool hall on Main Street with a room in
- 3:29Speaker 1: the back where the family spent and.
- 3:33Speaker 3: Had to do.
- 3:35Speaker 1: As Lindsay said, his father taught him the key to
- 3:39Speaker 1: being a successful bar owner is that you have to
- 3:42Speaker 1: be funny enough that people will keep coming back, and
- 3:46Speaker 1: that you have to be tough enough that you can
- 3:48Speaker 1: stay in business and thrive, a very difficult combination for
- 3:53Speaker 1: his entire storied career. That's exactly who Lindsey Graham was.
- 3:58Speaker 1: He was the first person to make you laugh and
- 4:01Speaker 1: one of the last people that you've really ever wanted
- 4:05Speaker 1: to fight. These were the traits that made him into
- 4:09Speaker 1: one of the great figures and senate history.
- 4:13Speaker 3: Few like him.
- 4:15Speaker 1: As a boy, Lindsay also learned his first lessons in
- 4:18Speaker 1: diplomacy when the wife of one regular patron called the
- 4:21Speaker 1: bar asking for her husband. She demanded to know where
- 4:26Speaker 1: is he. The man instructed Lindsay, tell her I'm not here,
- 4:32Speaker 1: and young Lindsay nodded and said into the phone to
- 4:35Speaker 1: the wife, he said, to tell you that.
- 4:39Speaker 3: He's not here. That was Lindsay.
- 4:43Speaker 1: When Lindsay was just twenty years old, he lost his
- 4:45Speaker 1: mom to cancer. Fifteen months later, he lost his dad.
- 4:50Speaker 1: Their death left his thirteen year old sister, Darlene an orphan,
- 4:55Speaker 1: but in God's mercy, she had her wonderful brother to
- 4:58Speaker 1: take care of her. On top of it all, Lindsay
- 5:02Speaker 1: became her guardian while still in college and helped raise her.
- 5:06Speaker 1: He later said that for all his achievements, and he
- 5:09Speaker 1: had many, his single proudest accomplishment in life was how
- 5:13Speaker 1: well Darlene turned out. He had total respect and love
- 5:20Speaker 1: for Darlene. Nothing could be more fitting than that woman
- 5:26Speaker 1: who was Lindsay's proudest legacy now continues his legacy of
- 5:31Speaker 1: service in the US Senate, a place that he cherished,
- 5:35Speaker 1: and I have no doubt that he's looking down today
- 5:38Speaker 1: beaming with pride at his sister, Senator Darlene Graham.
- 5:45Speaker 3: Thank you.
- 5:45Speaker 1: Senator Lindsay first stormed into Washington with the Republican Revolution
- 5:52Speaker 1: of nineteen ninety four, becoming the first Republican to win
- 5:55Speaker 1: his house district in one hundred and twenty years.
- 5:58Speaker 3: That was Lindsay.
- 6:00Speaker 1: In twenty oh two, he ran for the Senate in
- 6:05Speaker 1: what should have been a loss, and he swept to
- 6:09Speaker 1: an easy victory. Lindsay quickly became a master at maneuvering
- 6:13Speaker 1: in one of the world's great legislative bodies. He secured
- 6:18Speaker 1: record funding for our military. As a Budget Committee chairman,
- 6:22Speaker 1: he delivered the largest investment in border security in history.
- 6:26Speaker 1: And last year he shepherded the passage of the largest
- 6:29Speaker 1: tax cuts in American history. The Great, Big, Beautiful Bill
- 6:36Speaker 1: had a lot of Lindsey goodies in there too, I
- 6:38Speaker 1: can tell you. And of course he was also a
- 6:42Speaker 1: great champion of the United States Supreme Court. His impassioned
- 6:46Speaker 1: defense of a wonderful person, a great gentleman, Justice Kavanaugh,
- 6:53Speaker 1: ended a disgraceful attack on this very good man and
- 6:57Speaker 1: gave us one of the greatest moments the Senate has
- 7:00Speaker 1: ever seen. It was a truly monumental moment in Senate history.
- 7:07Speaker 1: I believe it was Lindsay's perhaps finest hour. But no
- 7:12Speaker 1: matter how heated things got in Washington, virtually everyone Republican
- 7:17Speaker 1: or Democrat liked Lindsay.
- 7:20Speaker 3: Well, not everybody, but he sounds good. Not everybody.
- 7:25Speaker 1: He was a tough cookie. Okay, I have to be
- 7:27Speaker 1: I have to revere from this versa. He was a
- 7:29Speaker 1: tough cookie. Darley but he was beautiful. But he was
- 7:33Speaker 1: also ready with a joke and a gleam.
- 7:37Speaker 3: In his eye.
- 7:37Speaker 1: After being lectured on the excruciating details of patent law
- 7:42Speaker 1: by a fellow senator during a flight, Lindsay declared that
- 7:47Speaker 1: he had discovered a new form of enhanced interrogation and
- 7:52Speaker 1: torture for the Guantanamo Bay area.
- 7:57Speaker 3: He said, this is really bad stuff and boring.
- 8:02Speaker 1: And while he was an incredibly hard worker, he was
- 8:05Speaker 1: not exactly an early riser, as many of you know.
- 8:09Speaker 1: When Senator Tim Scott, a great gentleman in his own right,
- 8:13Speaker 1: I can tell you, invited him to prayer breakfast at
- 8:17Speaker 1: eight thirty am, Lindsay told him, Tim, if Jesus himself
- 8:21Speaker 1: comes back before ten am.
- 8:24Speaker 3: I ain't going yet.
- 8:28Speaker 1: While he was always quick to laugh and no one
- 8:30Speaker 1: ever doubted the gravity of his mission, above all, Lindsey
- 8:34Speaker 1: Graham believed in a strong America, wanted a strong America.
- 8:39Speaker 1: He had unwavering faith in the righteousness of American power
- 8:44Speaker 1: and prayer, and he was extremely hawkish. I will tell
- 8:49Speaker 1: you he never saw a war that he didn't like.
- 8:52Speaker 3: Only his true friends would understand that. But he wanted
- 8:54Speaker 3: it for the good of our country.
- 8:56Speaker 1: He felt in his bones that our destiny is to win,
- 9:00Speaker 1: and that his job was to do everything he could
- 9:02Speaker 1: to ensure our enemies would lose. It was this conviction
- 9:08Speaker 1: that led him to serve thirty three years in uniform
- 9:12Speaker 1: in the Air Force and Air Force Reserves and Air
- 9:15Speaker 1: National Guard even while he was in office. And it
- 9:19Speaker 1: was this conviction that took him as a senator to
- 9:22Speaker 1: almost every country on Earth, confronting America's adversaries and standing
- 9:27Speaker 1: up for America's friends. He had tremendous friendships all over
- 9:31Speaker 1: the world. It's a testament to his towering impact that
- 9:35Speaker 1: among those mourning him here today are leaders, presidents, prime
- 9:40Speaker 1: ministers from all over the globe.
- 9:42Speaker 3: They're sitting right here before you.
- 9:45Speaker 1: Lindsay met countless world leaders, yet wherever he went, he
- 9:49Speaker 1: was always the same Lindsay Graham.
- 9:52Speaker 3: When he met Libyan dictator.
- 9:55Speaker 1: Momar Kadaffi in a tent in the desert, he told him,
- 9:59Speaker 1: I expected some thing out of the Arabian nights. This
- 10:02Speaker 1: looks more like a Winnebago. That was not a good
- 10:05Speaker 1: statement to make at the time. And when he met
- 10:08Speaker 1: the Dali Lama, Lindsay looked him straight into the eyes
- 10:12Speaker 1: and said, so, can you really levitate? Dali Lama was
- 10:18Speaker 1: not happy with that, But no matter how high he rose,
- 10:22Speaker 1: he never forgot where he came from. There's probably not
- 10:27Speaker 1: a single town in South Carolina where Lindsay did not
- 10:29Speaker 1: help repair a bridge, expand to school, and prove a hospital,
- 10:33Speaker 1: or recover from a disaster. He was a force of
- 10:37Speaker 1: nature and I will miss him greatly. As you remember,
- 10:42Speaker 1: Lindsay and I did not exactly get off to the
- 10:46Speaker 1: best of.
- 10:46Speaker 3: Starts running against each other.
- 10:50Speaker 1: Back in twenty sixteen, Lindsay said something rather nasty on
- 10:55Speaker 1: his flight to becoming the next president of the United States.
- 11:00Speaker 1: So naturally I did something that I shouldn't have done.
- 11:03Speaker 1: I shared his personal cell phone number with the millions
- 11:07Speaker 1: of people that happened to be watching that particular day
- 11:10Speaker 1: as I made a speech, a very important speech, and
- 11:13Speaker 1: I remember the number two two two two eight two
- 11:17Speaker 1: nine two. If anybody wants to give it a shot.
- 11:20Speaker 1: His phone exploded. He said, I had that number for
- 11:23Speaker 1: twenty years, his phone totally. I don't know what he
- 11:26Speaker 1: did with it, but it exploded. That was the beginning
- 11:29Speaker 1: of a friendship in a way. But it was Lindsay
- 11:33Speaker 1: who had the last laugh because while I blew.
- 11:35Speaker 3: Up his phone.
- 11:37Speaker 1: Oh, for one day, we became great friends, and Lindsay
- 11:41Speaker 1: did not stop calling me for the next ten years.
- 11:44Speaker 3: It was not he'sy.
- 11:47Speaker 1: I always cherished the memories of our golf games, and
- 11:50Speaker 1: only because of his really, and I will say this
- 11:55Speaker 1: memorial service is so hard to say, memorial service for Lindsey.
- 11:59Speaker 3: It's hard to say.
- 12:00Speaker 1: But I'll admit that one time Lindy Graham and Anica
- 12:04Speaker 1: Sorenson actually beat me and Gary Player together. Can you
- 12:09Speaker 1: believe that Honica played very well that day? Actually, But
- 12:14Speaker 1: right to the end, Lindsay carried in his golf bag
- 12:17Speaker 1: the putter that once belonged to his dad, and he
- 12:20Speaker 1: carried it with him with class and with a ring
- 12:24Speaker 1: that was so beautiful of his mother. And they were
- 12:28Speaker 1: laying right at his bedside the night he died.
- 12:32Speaker 3: They were there. He had him with him at all times.
- 12:36Speaker 1: From that pool hall where his parents raised him, to
- 12:39Speaker 1: the halls of the United States Senate, where he was
- 12:42Speaker 1: respected and loved. The son of South Carolina became one
- 12:45Speaker 1: of the most important men in the most important country
- 12:49Speaker 1: on Earth, in a city where politicians often become jaded
- 12:53Speaker 1: and Seneca. Lindsay Graham never lost the old fashioned American
- 12:58Speaker 1: idealism that brought him to the highest levels of government
- 13:03Speaker 1: and life. He took his duty seriously without taking himself
- 13:07Speaker 1: too seriously. He was unwavering in his principles, but always
- 13:12Speaker 1: willing to listen. He always wanted to listen. And one
- 13:16Speaker 1: thing about Lindsay that we all know he never quit.
- 13:20Speaker 1: You wanted him to quit, You waited for him to quit,
- 13:23Speaker 1: but he would never quit. Above all, Lindsey Graham loved
- 13:26Speaker 1: America and he believed in the American people. If you
- 13:30Speaker 1: shared that view, you had a friend in Lindsay. If
- 13:33Speaker 1: you didn't share it, there was no fiercer or more
- 13:37Speaker 1: constant opponent. Our nation needs more men and women like
- 13:44Speaker 1: that great person sitting laying wherever he may be. I
- 13:50Speaker 1: think I know where he is, and I think he's
- 13:52Speaker 1: up there.
- 13:52Speaker 3: I think he's watching us. I'm pretty sure of it.
- 13:57Speaker 1: Scripture tells us that blessed is the man who remained
- 14:02Speaker 1: steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test,
- 14:06Speaker 1: he will receive the crown of life for seventy one years.
- 14:11Speaker 1: Lindsey Graham was strong and steadfast as a brother, a senator,
- 14:16Speaker 1: a warrior, and a patriot. He withstood every last test,
- 14:22Speaker 1: every single test that you can go through in every trial,
- 14:26Speaker 1: and now he wears the crown of life and heaven,
- 14:29Speaker 1: reunited with his parents and reunited with his Lord. I
- 14:35Speaker 1: end by saying something very very special, Lindsey.
- 14:40Speaker 3: We love you, God bless you. We will always be
- 14:44Speaker 3: with you, and you were very very special. Thank you,
- 14:48Speaker 3: thank you very much,