Trump on Graham: "A force to be reckoned with all over the world"

President Trump eulogized the late Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) during a funeral service Tuesday at the Washington National Cathedral, calling him a "giant" of the Senate and highlighting his influence on American politics over the past three decades.

"Today, we gather in the deepest gratitude and profoundest sorrow to honor a beloved friend, a devoted brother, a respected statesman, a giant of the United States Senate, and a true American original who left us much too soon," he said.

"By the strength of his steadfast convictions, the force of his magnetic personality and the goodness of his noble soul, Lindsey rose from a small town in rural South Carolina — a place he loved so much — to become a constant fixture of American politics at the highest level and a force to be reckoned with all over the world."

The president lauded his outsized impact on American politics since his first election to Congress in 1994.

"For more than 30 years, nothing of consequence happened in this capital without Lindsey Graham knowing about it," he said. "Nothing of significance happened anywhere in the world without Lindsey Graham having a view on it. And no bill became law in the most exceptional Republican human history without Lindsey Graham having a say in it."

The South Carolina Republican — an Air Force veteran, lawyer and one-time presidential candidate — died unexpectedly earlier this month at 71 of an aortic dissection caused by arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease.

"He was a man who gave America the full measure of his good and mighty heart, until that heart itself just gave out," President Trump said.

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