Senate Majority Leader John Thune broke down in tears on the Senate floor Monday while paying tribute to the late Senator Lindsey Graham, and if you have ever seen John Thune speak publicly about anything, you know this man does not cry easily. The guy usually has the emotional range of a filing cabinet, which is what made the moment so striking.
As Trending Politics reported, the South Dakota Republican struggled to get through his remarks about his decades-long friendship with Graham, his voice cracking as he tried to wrap things up. He closed with five words that pretty much wrecked everyone watching: "We will laugh together again." Then he yielded the floor and walked off looking like a man who had just lost a brother.
Graham died Saturday, July 11, at the age of 71. His office initially described the cause as a "brief and sudden illness," which naturally sent the internet into full conspiracy mode. The District of Columbia medical examiner put that to rest Monday with preliminary findings concluding Graham died from an aortic dissection caused by arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease. For those of you who skipped biology, that is when the inner layer of the body's main artery tears and blood starts flowing between the artery walls. It is often fatal if not treated immediately and is associated with underlying cardiovascular disease. Sometimes the body just has a catastrophic failure and there is nothing anyone can do about it.
President Trump also spoke about Graham's passing Monday and revealed he had talked to the senator just hours before learning he had died. "Around the time, it couldn't have been much longer. It could have been his last call," Trump said. "I got a message about one o'clock in the morning from one of the people at his office that he had passed away. I said, 'I can't believe it.' He was like a member of the family to me."
Trump went on to praise Graham's ability to navigate both sides of the aisle, which, if you followed Graham's career at all, was both his superpower and the thing that drove half the Republican base absolutely nuts at various points. "He had a unique ability. He was able to deal with Democrats and Republicans," Trump said. "If I had a problem with a Democrat, he could work it out. He was a great politician."
Trump also recommended that South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster appoint Graham's sister, Darline Graham Nordone, to temporarily fill the Senate seat until a special election can be held. Nothing says Washington quite like a president making personnel suggestions for another branch of government before the week is even over.
But the lasting image from Monday was Thune standing on the Senate floor, barely holding it together. Washington is a town where genuine emotion is rarer than a balanced budget, so when the majority leader of the United States Senate cries in front of his colleagues, you know the loss is real. Whatever you thought of Lindsey Graham's politics, the man clearly meant something to the people who worked alongside him.
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