Vance, Thune lead tributes to ‘American original’ Lindsey Graham: ‘I feel his absence every day’

WASHINGTON — Vice President JD Vance, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, and other political leaders paid tribute to the late Sen. Lindsey Graham Tuesday, fondly recounting his sharp wit and influence.

“May God rest the soul of Senator Lindsey Graham, a true American original,” Vance told an audience of current and former lawmakers and Graham admirers in the Capitol Rotunda.

The veep recounted how he once engaged Graham (R-SC) in a ferocious debate about funding for Ukraine early on in Vance’s time in the Senate.

“I remember going back to my staff and saying, ‘Well, that’s probably the end of Lindsey’s vote on the railway bill,’” recalled Vance, referring to legislation respoding to the February 2023 train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio. “I found out a couple of weeks later from another Senate colleague that the fiercest advocate of that bill behind the scenes was Senator Lindsey Graham.”

Of Graham the person, Vance said, “it was impossible not to like him. That swashbuckling, infectious laugh, that attitude, that passion that so many others have talked about.”

Before Vance spoke, an emotional Thune told the audience that “my heart is heavy.

“I feel his absence every day, and I know my colleagues do as well,” he said. “I look forward to the days when you make us laugh again.”

Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and ex-Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) were among the hundreds who attended the brief service.