{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.marshall.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/senator-marshall-lindsey-graham-was-a-true-patriot-bipartisan-leader/", "Senator Marshall: Lindsey Graham Was a True Patriot & Bipartisan Leader", "2026-07-13", "2026", "2026-07", "Republican", "Senate", "KS", "Roger Marshall", "M001198", "www.marshall.senate.gov", "marshall", "https://www.marshall.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "Senator Marshall Joins Newsmax & KCMO Radio\n\nWashington \u2013 U.S. Senator Roger Marshall, M.D. (R-Kansas), joined Sharla McBride and Marc Lotter on Newsmax\u2019s 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.\n\nClick HERE to download the full video.\n\nClick HERE to download the full video.\n\nOn the passing and personal character of Senator Lindsey Graham:\n\n\u201cYou know, it\u2019s a tough day up here. So many of us are still in denial, we\u2019re still just trying to ask, \u2018Did this really happen to one of my besties?\u2019 Lindsey Graham was one of my very best friends up here, and I won\u2019t 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\u2019t like \u2014 well, I never met a person that didn\u2019t like Lindsey Graham. They didn\u2019t 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\u2019re going to really miss him \u2014 I\u2019ll especially miss him in the cloakroom.\u201d\n\n\u201cHere\u2019s something that nobody knows \u2014 and I haven\u2019t shared this with anybody yet \u2014 but Lindsey had an encyclopedic knowledge of the Bible. We had several times what\u2019s called a vote-a-rama \u2014 we\u2019re up all night, we\u2019re in the cloakroom, think of your guy\u2019s locker room or your girl\u2019s locker room, where you kind of get a little loose. And all of a sudden \u2014 we\u2019ve got three guys up here, Senators, with divinity degrees \u2014 Lindsey goes into a Bible contest of knowledge, where he was not using notes, and quizzing these guys on Bible history. I don\u2019t 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\u2019s 23, he has a little sister who\u2019s 13 at the time and he legally adopts his little sister. We\u2019ve got to meet her many times, and you just can\u2019t go a conversation where Lindsey doesn\u2019t talk about his little sister. So just a loving guy, and just humorous, witty, genuine, authentic \u2014 all those things. So, we\u2019re just going to miss him horribly.\u201d\n\n\u201cBut Lindsey\u2019s passing is going to really\u2026 it\u2019ll be interesting to see. Maybe it\u2019ll lead to a little bipartisanship. Maybe people will take a deep breath and say, \u2018Wow.\u2019 Lindsey Graham, he spoke so clearly, so authentically, with humor and an emotional intensity that everyone can appreciate as well. We\u2019re 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.\u201d\n\nOn the cause of Senator Graham\u2019s death:\n\n\u201cWell, you know, number one, I think just the spiritual side of this \u2014 that no one\u2019s promised tomorrow, and to make every day count, and those things we\u2019ve all been taught. I think of the chest pain stuff of this \u2014 I didn\u2019t 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 \u2014 very catastrophic in a matter of seconds when you think about an aortic dissection, which is what\u2019s being reported. And I don\u2019t want to speak out of school, but I think the pathology report\u2019s 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\u2019t ignore those chest pain symptoms, especially you know if you\u2019ve got pain that starts in your chest and it\u2019s going down your arm or up your jaws, those types of things. And maybe it\u2019s just indigestion, but you\u2019re not going to know till we get an EKG or maybe some other studies.\u201d\n\nOn Senator Graham\u2019s legacy of leadership:\n\n\u201cSo certainly, he\u2019s been around a long time \u2014 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\u2019s 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 \u2014 unless there was a huge character flaw or something \u2014 he started off at yes. And he was one of those people that would be criticized today for quote \u2018helping the Democrats out too much.\u2019 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\u2026. So, he walked across the aisle enough with his votes to earn that respect.\u201d\n\n\u201cI 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 \u2014 a former colonel in the United States Air Force, you know very few people remember that. So, on the Budget Committee, you know, he\u2019s 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 \u2014 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, \u2018Lindsey, what about this? What about that?\u2019 he would look at them and say, \u2018Great, you\u2019re in charge of figuring that out for us.\u2019 And that\u2019s total military leadership is to let other people who care about one particular thing say, \u2018Yeah, you go take that mountain right now.\u2019 So that\u2019s what I remember Lindsey for is working on this Working Family Tax Cuts bill \u2014 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.\u201d\n\nOn passing the SAVE America Act and another reconciliation bill:\n\n\u201cWell, there\u2019s no easy mountain to climb here. And by the way, I really do believe that Mitch McConnell is going to be back; he\u2019s been a tough fighter his whole life \u2014 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\u2019s just vote on voter ID. 90% of Americans support that; let\u2019s get it passed. Surely 10 Democrats will vote for voter ID, but I\u2019d like to get them on record one way or the other. Then, let\u2019s vote on some type of proof of citizenship and get that passed. Then let\u2019s go to what type of guardrails do we want on mail-in ballots as well? But it\u2019s tough. And the real question we should be asking is why won\u2019t 10 Democrats support something that 90% of Americans support as well?\u201d\n\n\u201cI think upfront for us is who\u2019s going to be the next Budget Committee chairman. I don\u2019t want to deal with that, but we need to if we want to get Reconciliation 3.0 done, it\u2019s going to start in the Budget Committee again, so we\u2019re going to have to rally the troops and figure out what we\u2019re 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 \u2014 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 \u2014 and that would be how do we fund the government, how do we keep government open.\n\nOn replacing Lindsey Graham in the Senate:\n\n\u201cWe\u2019re supposed to celebrate someone\u2019s life. But we\u2019re really a pretty tight team up here, and there\u2019s going to be some mourning, and there\u2019s going to be some denial and anger. I don\u2019t think we should jump to reconciliation. Hopefully it\u2019s a short-term deal; they\u2019ll have a real election process in November anyway. So, I don\u2019t have any idea; I don\u2019t know who the players are. I certainly hope it\u2019s someone who is a fiscal conservative, supports a Make America Great Again agenda, America First agenda. So, I guess, and there\u2019s several people that could fulfill that role, especially short term as well. But you know, just today, I\u2019m just going to honor Lindsey\u2019s 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\u2019s going through as well.\u201d\n\n###", 1, "2026-07-14T07:08:55Z", "2026-07-14T07:10:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.marshall.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/senator-marshall-lindsey-graham-was-a-true-patriot-bipartisan-leader/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.3736591208726168, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}