Senator Marshall: Lindsey Graham Was a True Patriot & Bipartisan Leader

Senator Marshall Joins Newsmax & KCMO Radio

Washington - U.S. Senator Roger Marshall, M.D. (R-Kansas), joined Sharla McBride and Marc Lotter on Newsmax's Wake Up America and Pete Mundo on KCMO Radio to discuss the passing of Senator Lindsey Graham, his personal character and genuine love for America, his ongoing legacy in the Senate, and how the work to pass the SAVE America Act and reconciliation must continue in his honor.

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Click HERE to download the full video.

On the passing and personal character of Senator Lindsey Graham:

"You know, it's a tough day up here. So many of us are still in denial, we're still just trying to ask, 'Did this really happen to one of my besties?' Lindsey Graham was one of my very best friends up here, and I won't be surprised if 98 Senators also say that he was one of their best friends. He had the gift of hospitality. You know, I think of Will Rogers saying that he never met a man he didn't like - well, I never met a person that didn't like Lindsey Graham. They didn't always agree with him, but he was so likable, so genuine, and just such a good person. He made me laugh all the time. We're going to really miss him - I'll especially miss him in the cloakroom."

"Here's something that nobody knows - and I haven't shared this with anybody yet - but Lindsey had an encyclopedic knowledge of the Bible. We had several times what's called a vote-a-rama - we're up all night, we're in the cloakroom, think of your guy's locker room or your girl's locker room, where you kind of get a little loose. And all of a sudden - we've got three guys up here, Senators, with divinity degrees - Lindsey goes into a Bible contest of knowledge, where he was not using notes, and quizzing these guys on Bible history. I don't know where he got that, he was raised in a bar. His parents owned a bar; he was raised in the back room of it. His parents die when he's 23, he has a little sister who's 13 at the time and he legally adopts his little sister. We've got to meet her many times, and you just can't go a conversation where Lindsey doesn't talk about his little sister. So just a loving guy, and just humorous, witty, genuine, authentic - all those things. So, we're just going to miss him horribly."

"But Lindsey's passing is going to really… it'll be interesting to see. Maybe it'll lead to a little bipartisanship. Maybe people will take a deep breath and say, 'Wow.' Lindsey Graham, he spoke so clearly, so authentically, with humor and an emotional intensity that everyone can appreciate as well. We're just going to really miss Lindsey, and my heartfelt condolences go to his little sister, who he helped raise, and really all of his family members."

On the cause of Senator Graham's death:

"Well, you know, number one, I think just the spiritual side of this - that no one's promised tomorrow, and to make every day count, and those things we've all been taught. I think of the chest pain stuff of this - I didn't know. I mean, if Lindsey would have told me what he was feeling, I think I would have literally driven him to the hospital myself. But it went from nothing to something - very catastrophic in a matter of seconds when you think about an aortic dissection, which is what's being reported. And I don't want to speak out of school, but I think the pathology report's been released now that it was probably an aortic dissection, which is a sudden catastrophic event. But he may have had some symptoms. So yeah, I mean don't ignore those chest pain symptoms, especially you know if you've got pain that starts in your chest and it's going down your arm or up your jaws, those types of things. And maybe it's just indigestion, but you're not going to know till we get an EKG or maybe some other studies."

On Senator Graham's legacy of leadership:

"So certainly, he's been around a long time - in the House for four years, and over here I think close to 24 years. So, there was a time up here when bipartisanship was respected and was just a common deal. So, I think he's chairman of the Judiciary Committee and has been on that. So, as you go through all these confirmations on judges, especially Supreme Court justices, Lindsey would have had the attitude that even if a Democrat nominated a Supreme Court justice - unless there was a huge character flaw or something - he started off at yes. And he was one of those people that would be criticized today for quote 'helping the Democrats out too much.' But there are times when you do need some people to fund the government or to get Supreme judges elected. There has to be some bipartisan support…. So, he walked across the aisle enough with his votes to earn that respect."

"I think number one is just his ability to communicate. Certainly, he was authentic, he was genuine, he brought in humor, and then just an emotional intensity that you could feel. Lindsey was a true patriot - a former colonel in the United States Air Force, you know very few people remember that. So, on the Budget Committee, you know, he's the chairman, and he would gladly tell you that he hated numbers; he hated math; he was a big-picture person. So, on the Budget Committee, when we did our Working Family Tax Cuts bill, which ends up being the largest tax cut, the largest spending cut by the government in American history, that starts on the Budget Committee. And then Lindsey would just tell people let Marshall and Ron Johnson and Rick Scott do the numbers, but he was the big picture guy that really was the catalyst to say we can do this. We can put this all in one big bill and get it done all together - and he just has this can-do attitude. He was one of the few people up here that made the complicated simple, which is what leaders do. Commonly, government makes the simple complicated, but Lindsey made the complicated simple. Whenever anyone wanted to dive into some rabbit hole, and they would say, 'Lindsey, what about this? What about that?' he would look at them and say, 'Great, you're in charge of figuring that out for us.' And that's total military leadership is to let other people who care about one particular thing say, 'Yeah, you go take that mountain right now.' So that's what I remember Lindsey for is working on this Working Family Tax Cuts bill - again the largest tax cut, the largest spending cut, in American history. We were back and forth to the White House several times together, talking with the President, and he was very instrumental in just keeping the President on board the whole way, and using his full weight at the White House to get that across the finish line."

On passing the SAVE America Act and another reconciliation bill:

"Well, there's no easy mountain to climb here. And by the way, I really do believe that Mitch McConnell is going to be back; he's been a tough fighter his whole life - you know, he had polio at a young age. For that important vote, Mitch will make it back as well. Look, I think we need to, just all by itself, let's just vote on voter ID. 90% of Americans support that; let's get it passed. Surely 10 Democrats will vote for voter ID, but I'd like to get them on record one way or the other. Then, let's vote on some type of proof of citizenship and get that passed. Then let's go to what type of guardrails do we want on mail-in ballots as well? But it's tough. And the real question we should be asking is why won't 10 Democrats support something that 90% of Americans support as well?"

"I think upfront for us is who's going to be the next Budget Committee chairman. I don't want to deal with that, but we need to if we want to get Reconciliation 3.0 done, it's going to start in the Budget Committee again, so we're going to have to rally the troops and figure out what we're going to do. And by the way, you know Chuck Schumer is going to shut the government down on September 30th again. So, we need to keep our eye on that ball - how do we fund the government when no Democrats are going to vote for it? Because they would gladly have our country in a recession, then let Donald Trump keep the majorities in the House and the Senate. So, I think we need to stay locked in on what we can control - and that would be how do we fund the government, how do we keep government open.

On replacing Lindsey Graham in the Senate:

"We're supposed to celebrate someone's life. But we're really a pretty tight team up here, and there's going to be some mourning, and there's going to be some denial and anger. I don't think we should jump to reconciliation. Hopefully it's a short-term deal; they'll have a real election process in November anyway. So, I don't have any idea; I don't know who the players are. I certainly hope it's someone who is a fiscal conservative, supports a Make America Great Again agenda, America First agenda. So, I guess, and there's several people that could fulfill that role, especially short term as well. But you know, just today, I'm just going to honor Lindsey's life and celebrate it and try to work through my own grieving here. He felt like a brother to me, and you know, we met his little sister several times and just know the grief that she's going through as well."

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